question about spalting

[Wally Wenzel]

I roughed out a cuple of 11" dia. maple bowles about a year ago DNA soaked wraped and let dry for about a month, then stored them in a cardboared box. They went through this winter in unheated garage when i checked just now they are very much spalted, they were really blah looking when they were put away I didn't think they would spalt after they were dry and our winters were really cold this year, below o*many times. My question is how could this happen?
Wally

[Bill Bolen]

Wally, are you sure it is spalting and not just mold? Big dark area is mold spalting is usually dark inky thin lines. I'm surprised you got spalting in the cold.From what I have read it takes heat at about 70* + and moisture to make wood spalt.Sorry, no expert but my old memory does seem to remember that...Bill...

[Wally Wenzel]

Thanks Bill for your response, but they are clearly spalted as i have one on the lathe now, they were in the garage during the summer and it got warm then maybe that was enough to do it, but didn't think they would spalt after they were dry. If this one turns out i will see if i can get a pic.
Wally

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wally - just a guess - but I would think your bowls absorbed a lot of moisture while being stored in the garage. I had a lot of green wood that I stored in mine this winter so I could have access to it to rough everything out. Thought it strange that even though the temps were close to 0* or below for months - every piece of wood I brought into the shop was covered in mold. I had thought the cold would prevent that from happening.

Your bowls must have taken on moisture and then during the summer months it was warm enough to start the spalting process - which is just the natural decay process anyway.

Hope your bowls are not punky and the spalting has great patterns! Looking forward to seeing the bowls real soon!

[Burt Alcantara]

I have a huge pile of small, dry Willow blanks. As I go through them I find the older ones, all from the same tree, have more spalting. When I got the logs, they were clear white. All were cut, waxed and dried at the same time (I was making a lot of boxes at the time). So, in my dry desert climate, I get spalting in my shop. Humidity in the shop feels like zero.

Burt