Anybody else love spalting?

That is absolutly beautiful. I am just getting into box building and badsaw box building. Looks to be a lot of fun.

Thanks. I do a lot of small boxes because they are fun, give you practice on skills that you can use on larger projects, they don't take up a lot of space, and the material cost is a helluvalot cheaper than for, oh... say, a chest of drawers. :-)

Very nice!

Very pretty. A good piece of spalted wood is beautiful, but also pretty rare. Check out what I just bought.

That should make an awesome turning. Be sure to post pics when the time comes!

Going a little OT here, but the title of this thread reminds me of an old cartoon.

The scene: A bookish young lad and a lass are sitting on a picnic blanket.

The young lad is holding aloft a book and asks: "Do you like Kipling?"

The girl, blushing, responds:"I don't know, I've never kippled."

That's really nice, Charlie. I make boxes too, but nothing nearly as lovely as that one.

The beautiful thing about posting things like that is that it's inspiration for the rest of us. Or at least me.

Thanks for putting it up.

Tanus

A friend of mine was moving his business and had to get some heavy lumber for his machinery, so he went to this pallet place that sells air-dried timbers. They were 4x6s, very cheap, and spalted just like your lovely piece. Don't know what kind of wood they are, maybe what they call river birch. I resawed a few of them and put them aside for some project when I'm old-er and grey-er.

... snip

^^^^^ Now, remember,it's a poor craftsman that blames his tools. ;-)

Don't forget that while Maple is the most common wood you will find available commercially (spalted) you can have other woods transformed in to project gems as well. My spalted boxes and mirrors were built from a piece of Southern Live Oak harvested here locally in Southwest Florida (by your's truly) and after wetting the log, I put it in a black plastic bag for about a year then let it air dry until I quarter sawed it on my band saw into its final incarnation .

Regards,

Dennis Slabaugh, Hobbyist Woodworker