Expert: James Yee - 8/23/2009

Question
Guys,

I have a 6 month old, 25-capacity glass top humidor.  The box has been maintaining 70-72% humidity on a digital hygrometer, but dropped to 60-62% about 2 weeks ago. This week, I noticed several small dark spots on the interior walls that were not there before (note:  last month, my humidifier leaked out the bottom after a refill and ruined 1 stick, but that noble stick kept it from spreading and ruining the others, and has been awarded a posthumous medal of valor.  once i got that cleaned up, things went back to normal until the time frame noted above).

Concerned that the spots were mold, I consulted several websites and believed that they corroborated this.  I removed my sticks/humidifier/hygrometer to tupperware for the time being and let the box dry out (the tupperware humidity shows 70%, so I don't believe there's a hygrometer issue).  I then lightly sanded down the spots, which helped, but I found that each spot was where a small tack was driven in to hold the interior walls to the main body of the box.

Is there anything can do to keep the spots from coming back at those tack sites?

Thanks


Answer
Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, those dark spots may return over time.  The dark spots are most likely from the tacks tarnishing (or rusting) from the moisture and rubbing off into the wood.  If the tacks are not brass, you can replace them with genuine brass tacks and that may help as genuine brass tacks/nails/screws will not rust.

If you're confident about modifying your humidor, you can remove the interior panels and add new Spanish cedar panels.  Instead of securing the new panels with tacks, you should bevel the edges of each cedar panel so they "lock" freely with each other and hold in place without tacks or glue.  (Many custom-built humidors use this method.)  This is more ideal since wood will expand with moisture and a tacked panel inside a humidor can crack if it does not freely expand.

Hopes this helps.  If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
James