My First Gloat?? (pic)

[Dale Thompson]

Hey Folks,
At least the "gloat" wood was free! :)

I went over to my local millwork guy today to get a couple of "sticks" to finish out a rather large assembly of "scrap" that I have been working on for a while. He rips me off to the tune of about $1.20 for a board foot of S4S Red Oak. His customers are medium-sized cabinet shops within a 100 mile radius of Peshtigo. Every once in a while, the inspectors from those shops "reject" some Cherry or Walnut because they are, "more than 40% cull". Somehow he tolerates me because I drop off a pen or two for his crew. They LOVE the ones with rifle clips and/or fish or fishing pole clips. Anyway, if I buy more than $20 worth of Oak, he will usually throw in one of those "culled" boards of Cherry or Walnut. :)

Whatever, today he was REALLY generous on my sticks! He also pointed out two planks which were 4/4 Oak and the shops didn't want them. He said that he would throw them in for free with my $24 order. They are about 9" wide by 9' long.

After they were loaded on my wheelchair, I went tooling out of his "yard" while telling him that the two "free" ones where "spalted" Oak and that I was going to sell them on ebay for $1 Million each!! ;) :D :cool: You would not believe the obscene gesture that he gave me on my way out. :(

What IS this stuff and EXACTLY WHAT is spalting? Is it a bug, a bacteria or something like ecoli virus? Whatever, I think that it would make a fantastic mantle clock! :cool:

Dale T.

[Corey Hallagan]

Way to go Dale! That is a cool piece of wood! It pays to butter up your supply guys :)

Corey

[Karl Laustrup]

Pesh, I certainly hope that you have a trailer for the wheelchair.:D I was just picturing you coming out of the yard with a couple of 9' boards on your lap, clearing a path on each side of you as you went. :eek:
Why, on earth, did you drill all them holes in that piece of oak? You making a downdraft sanding table?

All seriousness aside, I'm not sure what causes those, but I think it's bugs. I picked up some oak that had been part of an auction [if only I had the room at the time of the auction, but that's another story] and it had holes, in some cases all the way through.

At the price you paid, you can't really complain too much, can you? :D

Karl

[David Fried]

Oh heck, call it Birds-eye Oak and charge extra! :D

[John Miliunas]

Hey Pesh, it all burns the same! Bwaaaaaa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!!!!:D Dang, sometimes I just crack myself up!:) Ok, all kidding aside, nice score and it sure is nice of your supplier to throw in those occassional freebies. (Yeah, I know...He's actually just trying to bribe you into loading your stuff and getting you outta' there, so that he can tend to his *real* customers.. But still, free is free!:) )

Hey, is all this heavy activity still within the post-op restrictions you had????:confused: :mad: Better be or I'll come up there and hog-tie you to that scroll saw!!!:) :D :cool:

[Aaron Heck]

Spalting is a fungus, but I've never seen it like that board pictured above.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

That sure is an interesting board! Congrats on the find. I don't know that I could sell it though...

[Maurice Ungaro]

Dale, Aaron is correct - Spalting is a fungus. Usually shows up as black/silver/grey lines that travel with growth rings. Really shows how porous wood is!. I've got some spalted pecan that I'm waiting to saw up (once my bandsaw is delivered!).

Something else about spalted wood, you need to treat the wood with some fungicide in order to arrest the stuff and keep it from toatlly eating the wood.

Your wood looks different, and is ABSOLUTLEY gorgeous!

[Greg Tatum]

Hey Dale.....I had a board that looked similar, only it was elm...was told they call it pin-burl....????...just a guess.
Regards,
Greg