Thread: Spalted colours

Yes, I'm sure I would have encountered spalting back in the beginning of my woodworking life, but almost certainly would have bypassed it in favor of "sound" pieces. Then in the 70s, I saw the creative ways James Krenov used it & became an instant fan.

It can be frustrating, though, you need to catch it when the spalt lines are well-formed but before the fungus causes significant deterioration in the wood, unless you want to muck about infusing the decayed parts with resin or whatever. I was given a pile of Jacaranda a while ago, which had some very nice patches, but most of it was too punky to use for much.

My best score was from a bloke who had taken up turning, and went out & collected a pile of stuff, then lost interest. He had a half-dozen good-sized billets of mango which he was going to toss on the fire 'cos it had "gone bad". I offered to relieve him of the job of disposing of it, suspecting there might be gold in some of the billets. There was lots, and the wood was mostly as sound as a bell! I got numerous pieces that made a nice bowl or two & some lovely book-mached panels. Here's a book-matched panel on one of my tool cupboards. I think this one warped a bit after it was split & I had to plane the faces back more than usual, so the bookmatch isn't as good as it could be, but you can still see a reasonably symmetrical pattern: Spalted mango.jpg

Part of the attraction for me of fiddleback, quilting, spalting or some of the other types of "defects" in wood is that each piece is unique - no two pieces are ever the same...

Cheers,

This piece is all sapwood but still firm
Too pretty to toast
The spalt and fiddleback together work i.m.o
Mr Fiddleback

Not sure if this is spalting or not, but something has definitely changed these bits of US White Oak, not just in colour, but it's much denser and smells sweeter as well.

PXL_20210117_104846759.jpgPXL_20210117_104746090.jpg

I'll post in the morning, but use this as a placeholder.

A while back I spent some time talking with a SCIENTIST about this and she wrote a whole PhD in it. She gave me a copy plus a few hefty articles on how to get it perfectly right.

She has even collected inoculations for the soil to trigger various colours, stripes, lines, etc. It's excellent.


I'll put everything up tomorrow. She gave me prior permission to do so.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Not sure if this is spalting or not, but something has definitely changed these bits of US White Oak, not just in colour, but it's much denser and smells sweeter as well.....

Elan, I think it would. According to the Wikipedia definition: "Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi."

So bluestain is spalting. 30 Done & dusted.jpg

I'm not so keen on the 'smeary' types of spalting like this, but some like them for the variety of colours they can impart to the wood.The spalting patterns I like most are the fine black lines caused by a particular group.

Here's a bit of a primer from FWW, while WP gets his thesis ready....

Cheers,

I like the dark lines as in this pic
Mr Fiddleback

Here we go!

Sara C. Robinson
Assistant Professor, Anatomy of Renewable Materials
Department of Wood Science and Engineering
Oregon State University


These are the emails I have for her, but they are 7 years old(!) : Sara Robinson <[email protected]> and : [email protected]

and this is the site she ran: Northern Spalting - Working at the intersection of art, science and craft

Keep in mind all this info is old and as of writing I've not checked to make sure its current.....

bloody hell! Theres even a book now!

Spalted Wood: The History, Science, and Art of a Unique Material - $60.00 : Schiffer Publishing
ISBN13: 9780764350382

9780764350382.jpg

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Here we go!

Sara C. Robinson
Assistant Professor, Anatomy of Renewable Materials
Department of Wood Science and Engineering
Oregon State University


These are the emails I have for her, but they are 7 years old(!) : Sara Robinson <[email protected]> and : [email protected]

and this is the site she ran: Northern Spalting - Working at the intersection of art, science and craft

Keep in mind all this info is old and as of writing I've not checked to make sure its current.....

They sure take their spalting seriously...thank you WP for your contribution
Mr Fiddleback

A lot of the spalting here in the UK is in Beech (usually Fagus sylvatica L. [Fagaceae].
Some of this was delivered by the log man, also some Holly but the spalting on that was not so attractive, both were c==p for burning but turned OK although a bit punky and soaked up the sanding sealer....
Not a problem now as Father Christmas brought me some Cactus Juice.
Mark

"Cactus Juice"????

Tell us more......

Originally Posted by IanW

"Cactus Juice"????

Tell us more......

It's available at Timberbits, I bought a bottle of Earl's Wood Hardener from the big green shed and I have found it excellent for fixing punky wood.
Rgds,
Crocy.

Originally Posted by IanW

"Cactus Juice"????

Tell us more......

Its a stabilising resin, drawn into the wood under vacuum, then cured in an oven. All sorts of uses, pen blanks, tool handles, knife scales, etc. Check it out at the makers website
TurnTex, LLC
Timberbits is an agent in Australia.

OK, it just sounded like something you might apply (internally) to the turner rather than the turning.....

I've filed it for future reference....

Cheers,