Well, you could try some bleach, but I can’t say what it’ll do to the color… since I don’t know how your chanter was finished. The thing with this mold is that mold may have existed, and discolored the wood, before the instrument was made, so the it may be that the mold is effectively dead, and only the discoloration remains. OTH, if the mold is live, then killing it before it spreads is a good idea.
Loren
Well, I can’t tell you the scientific name of the mold, because I don’t know it. Typically it shows up as a dark streaking discoloration of the wood. This can be such a problem that we had our Boxwood treated at the time it was havested, to try to avoid as much loss as possible. As I recall, the process involves bathing the wood in superheated water or steam (to kill the mold), after which the wood is dried.
At any rate, I’d say 81% RH is a bit high, assuming your humidity gauge is correct (I’ve seen some that are off by as much as 35-40%!) However, if you’re instrument isn’t warping, swelling, or showing streaking, then I’d hesitate to suggest any radical changes, don’t mess with success, so to speak.
My personal (bad) experience took place when I stored a bunch of instruments and a humidifier in a tupperware container: All was fine for many months, however a time came when I wasn’t playing those particular instruments every day or so…well, long story short, about a month went by, and when I opened the container, I found mold covering an instrument made from Bois de Rose, the Boxwood isntrument had the dark mold streaking (which is nearly impossible to completely remove), and a third instrument (either cocus or blackwood, I don’t recall) seemed unaffected, although I did clean that instrument as well.
So, I guess my answer is: If it were my boxwood instrument, I’d check first to make sure my hygrometer was accurate. If so, I’d gradually lower the humidity by 5% or so, and see if you notice any dimensional changes in the instrument during the next month or six weeks. If everything is cool, I’d try to lower the humidity to at least 70%, which is still high, but I’d hesitiate to go any lower. A lot really depends on what the high and low humidity ranges are where the instrument was made, because you really don’t want to go too far from that in either direction.
Loren