Identifying/Soaking a Mopani Log?

[maghan6]

I bought a large piece of mopani wood two years ago from a pet store. I boiled it for a week, rotating the wood and changing the water. The wood continued to leach tannins until a couple of months ago. As the wood deteriorates, it will continue to leach tannins. Prepping the wood by soaking/boiling cleans the wood and removes some of the tannins, but it will not completely stop leaching for quite some time. Of course this also varies with the state of the wood. If it is "fresh" it takes a lot longer to stop leaching than if it has been "aged". At least this is the advice I was given years ago, and so far I've found this to be true.