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To be clear, the problem with Anon's "test" is that it doesn't show in any way how dirty the water was before it went through the wood, nor how clean it was after. All that it shows is that water will pass through wood. We already knew that.
What I'm suggesting is that Anon repeat the test with some controls and some ability to measure success. This could be as simple as taking contaminated water (from a pond, stream, rain puddle... anywhere), using some of that water to inoculate a set of agar plates, running the rest of the water through the wood filter, and then using some of that filtered water to inoculate another set of agar plates, then set the plates somewhere warm to incubate. If the filtered water shows a significant decrease in colony number, Hey Presto! We know that that technique, with that wood type, works.
Of course, then Anon would have to repeat the experiment with several different species to see what the difference in filtration ability for those different species are, but that's probably beyond the scope of a little hobby project like this.
Good luck Anon! We look forward to seeing your results!
