Creating spalting

[Bill Jobe]

Suppose a turner has more than enough of wood from a particularly special tree to last him a while. How might one go about maximising the chances of one or more pieces pulling minerals from the ground? Set it vertical to the ground with an inch or 2 burried or laying it on the ground horizontal with an inch or so burried?

Or 3: Stupid question.

It is a walnut tree from my daughter's property.

[Brice Rogers]

I'm not an expert, but I think that spalting looks best with woods that are NOT particularly dark. Because walnut is pretty dark, the effect of the spalting wouldn't be as pronounced as it might be on medium or lighter colored woods.

A question for people smarter than I am - - does the chatoyance of a wood seem to lessen or disappear when spalting occurs?? I have been turning a bunch of spalted Liquid Amber and am finding very little chatoyance.

[Mark Greenbaum]

My basic understanding of spalting is that it is the decaying process of various fungi. The black lines are the lines where 2 different fungi are meeting. And, yes, it is most visible in lighter colored woods, such as silver maple, or hackberry, or box elder. And I have a few pieces I am turning right now of Sweet Gum that have been cut and sitting outside for about a year, and they are spalted and sorry to say punky. As the wood sets uncut longer, more mapping (black lines) occurs. A Box Elder that I cut 3 objects from, progressively had more mapping as time progressed between each piece I turned. I also don't thing dark woods such a black walnut will spalt and create map lines. Perhaps English Walnut would, though, because it tends to be much lighter in color. Just my 2 cents, YMMV.

[Reed Gray]

The sap wood on walnut will spalt, I don't think the heart wood will. put the piece on dirt, end grain down, cover and wait about 1 to 2 months. For more than you ever knew you didn't know:

http://www.northernspalting.com/about-me/

robo hippy

[Bill Jobe]

Can't get the link to open.
Do I bury the whole piece or just a small part of it?
Know of any particular chemicals that can be added to the soil that would be drawn in and look good?
This walnut tree us mostly very dark. In fact when I first started turning it I thought I saw some purple coloring, but then, I'm colorblind. I will say that it is by far the prettiest walnut I've ever turned. Just wish I'd taken more if it but my wife is already threatening to torch all of my wood.

[robert baccus]

Try spalting wood by placing the cut surfaces on the organic soil and wetting weekly. Also cover with a tarp if possible. Fungi love damp. You can also infect wood with spalted shavings from previous pieces. Of the same species of course--fungi are often picky about feeding. For hackberry, you can hardly stop it from spalting.

[Larry Frank]

There is a LOT of info out there on spalting wood. Try Google and have fun reading. It appears that you can pick the type of fungi and become very scientific about it. I think that some have put a lot of effort into doing it and almost becomes a hobby of its own.

[Bruce Pratt]

Walnut heartwood will occasionally show some shades of purple and green, however, they may not persist as the wood dries. Walnut heartwood, like all wood is susceptible to fungal decay, however, it generally does not provide particularly spectacular and highly visible spalting, as seen in the lighter woods. As regards mineral staining, once the wood is dead, it is not going to take up anything more from the soil. Your best bet is probably just to seal the ends to reduce checking, and go with what you have.

[Jim Hipp]

Want to know about spalting? Go to you tube and search for this :

The intricacies of spalting: A master overview by Sara Robinson Phd.

[Michael Mills]

Here are a couple of Sara's videos.
Her book is now available from Amazon if you are so inclined.
https://www.amazon.com/Spalted-Wood-History-Science-Material/dp/0764350382/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466442710&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=spalting++sara

At OUS it is the fourth one down. (Different from the youtube)
http://oregonstate.edu/terra/2013/07/da-vinci-days-2013-stories-from-the-edge-of-science/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fWedsgkoxYY

[Wes Ramsey]

Spalted walnut sapwood can be just gorgeous. I turned a few walnut crotch bowls recently for a church auction and I left a bit of the (slightly) spalted sapwood from the top of the crotch. The wood was so beautiful I have many requests for more.

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I didn't do anything to spalt this. The logs sat in the bed of my truck for a few weeks before I roughed out the blanks, so I assume the spalting was already there. Some of the walnut I've turned has sat on the ground for several months without any heartwood spalting, but the sapwood seems to spalt pretty quickly.

[Aaron Craven]

Spalted walnut sapwood can be just gorgeous. I turned a few walnut crotch bowls recently for a church auction and I left a bit of the (slightly) spalted sapwood from the top of the crotch. The wood was so beautiful I have many requests for more.

339504339505339506

I didn't do anything to spalt this. The logs sat in the bed of my truck for a few weeks before I roughed out the blanks, so I assume the spalting was already there. Some of the walnut I've turned has sat on the ground for several months without any heartwood spalting, but the sapwood seems to spalt pretty quickly.

Now that is beautiful...

[Wes Ramsey]

Now that is beautiful...

Thanks Aaron! Didn't mean to steal the thread, just wanted to show what it could look like :)

[Bill Jobe]

Thanks for the links.
Looks like something I'd like to try.
I have a fairly good supply of hedge. Being much lighter than walnut, I bet you could come up with some very special colors.
I had been told that cherry darkens or "blushes" in sunlight. I found that to be true with hedge, too.

[Bill Jobe]

Are the fungi able to create spalting on a finished piece?
She may have addressed that, but I had dificulty understanding her speech.

[Wade Holloway]

You might get some spalt on a finished piece if you mean by finish that you have just finished turning the piece. Once you put a finish on it like a oil or varnish or even wax it would not spalt. That effect only comes from the process of rotting basically. Not sure I would want to take a turned piece and bury it and hope for some spalt. Spalting is not a exact science.


Are the fungi able to create spalting on a finished piece?
She may have addressed that, but I had dificulty understanding her speech.

[Dennis Peacock]

Here is a bowl that I did from wood that I spalted. I kept the log inside my shop, turned up on one end. I covered the top end of the log with sawdust and lathe curlies and saturated the wood shavings below and on top of the log section. I "watered" it once a week for a month and then just let it sit for 5 months. On the last part of the 6th month, I made the decision to turn the wood no matter what....and this is what I ended up with.

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[Donny Lawson]

Walnut does not spault very well. You may get some lines but it will need to be placed in a semi damp place with shade and a temp above 70 degrees. Place it on its side and wait.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Lots of trees have a natural fungicide build in, so that they will not rot away easily, like Black Locust and Osage Orange Cedars and many tropicals.

Trees Like Walnut and Black Cherry heartwood will not spalt, while the sapwood does.

Trees with a high sugar content (Maple and Birch), and the Elm family plus the closely related Hackberries will readily spalt as does Beech.

So when trying to spalt wood, think about which type you choose, as some will do so readily while other are bound to fail.

[Brice Rogers]

Are the fungi able to create spalting on a finished piece?
She may have addressed that, but I had dificulty understanding her speech.

Yes.
Bill, replay the video and forward to the end where she shows the URL for their website. You can buy the fungi from them. Not cheap for a one-shot test. But she said that if you have the skill and technique, you can keep the fungi alive for your lifetime. Me? Probably not.

[Steve Nix]

These sweet gum bowls were harvested in mid March and turned in early June. Salting was achieved in 8 weeks. I use a 30 gallon plastic trash can w/lid or 30 gallon plastic drum covered with a placid garbage bag to spalted in. Place a couple of blocks, brick, packing peanut in the bottom,anything to elevate your blanks off the bottom of contained 4-5 inches keeping them out of the water. Stack your green blanks (with bark)in container, add 3-4 inches of water. I then throw in pieces of bark or small pieces limbs I pick up it the woods that have fungal growth on them. Cover the container and in about 8-10 weeks you should have spalted wood. Remove from container and rinse off and let dry. Lighter colored wood like sycamore, gum, pecan, birch,the only one I've used show better spalting.

[Russell Neyman]

Are the vials of "spalting juice" still available? How would I purchase some of it? It appears to have been taken off of the market, possibly for liability reasons?

[Reed Gray]

Russell, look up NW Spalting and Dr. Seri Robinson. That was her whole thing. She is at Oregon State U.

robo hippy

[Don Stephan]

If you want to know what was learned from decades of research, and how to spalt wood by intent and not by chance, buy the very readable booK Spalting 101 by Dr Seri Robinson.