[SOLVED] spalting Solved

FWW had an article a few years ago, too...

Natural spalting is best, no way around it.

But years ago when I was doing a lot of wood turning a lot of us were "forc e" spalting by rough turning a bowl, Christmas ornament, or just about anyt hing else, and we put the objects into a tightly sealed trash bag covered w ith all the green shavings.

Left it under my storage room for several months, and the molds and fungi w ould do their work. Got some interesting stuff! For anyone that tries it, soft woods work best. Take the molded stuff out of the trash bag and let i t dry out slowly over a month or so then turn it.

Robert

going to try this worse that can happen is i end up with more firewood

how did it work for you

I've never worked with spalted wood - .. I generally burn it outside in the fire pit. John T.

Interesting that soft wood works best. The only wood I've seen spalt is Maple. I've done a lot of spalted maple turnings from spalted maple fire wood but really don't recall seeing other woods spalt? Not saying you're wrong, just that it surprises me. I never forced the issue, just used naturally spalted stuff. Does the other woods look anything like spalted maple, or is maple a unique look?

Common oak fire wood "spalts". My dad used to have his oak tree limbs trimmed and I cut them up for fire wood. Several years ago I was going to use some of that wood for our smoker and decided to rip the logs with my band saw. After seeing the insides of the logs I decided to cut veneers instead of burning it. Click below to see the fronts of a couple of jewelry chests I built about 10 years ago. The doors have that spalted oak.

And details on the apron ends of a desk I built in 2007. Zoom in.

Have a Sycamore bowl with spalting.

the wood i have is some kind of citrus i think

In a way, forced spalting is natural. Uses the same process, fungi and/or mold. The difference is one placing the ingredients in place, rather than it naturally occurring.

Another example: Holiday pumpkins, left on a table top too long, often mold and discolor the table. Obviously, other produce will do the same.

I usually hose off the saw dust and dirt from freshly milled lumber. If it's not washed thoroughly, any remaining debris might mold, causing discoloration, even if it's stickered. The last pine I milled discolored this way.

One of the reasons lumber mills continuously spray water on their cache of logs is to help prevent spalting.

Sonny

And I always assumed it was to keep the wood from becoming a huge potential fire hazard.

On 3/31/2018 1:03 PM, Leon wrote: ...

Mostly to keep from drying too rapidly and checking until get to the saw...

Yep, prevent checking and .... Keeping the wood wet makes for easier sawing, as opposed to sawing dry wood. Some fungi doesn't grow well in/on saturated wood. Powder post beetles avoid wet wood.... probably some other bugs, also, like the carpenter bee.

Sonny

OTOH, carpenter ants love the stuff.

Yes, those apron ends look exactly like the spalted maple I'm used to seeing. The doors not so much, but certainly spalted.

The aprons are Oak. Same oak as on the doors.