Spalting Sycamore? How?

[Thomas Colson]

Power company dropped a big sycamore at the bottom of my drive today, and bucked it up before I knew about it. Got a bunch of 2-3 foot logs at the top of my driveway now. Being fully aware of how sycamore likes to warp, I have nothing to lose by setting these up in the dark and damp north end of my shop and seeing how they spalt. What's the time line here? In east TN, so we got at least 3 more months of 70 deg or more every day, all day, and most nights. And plenty of rain. Cover them up with anything other than a piece of tin? Leave them for 3 months? Till next spring? Pour beer on them? Pee on them? Again, I agree, sycamore doesn't always stay the straightest, I'm just looking to get these spalted, depending how they spalt will decide how I cut/use the wood. Power company is also eyeing a 48 inch white oak too, which they will not buck! It's not real close to the power line but I've planted the seed that a branch might fall off and hit it....

[Mark Bolton]

In the hot warm it wont be long Id guess. Weeks, perhaps a month or so for it to get started. There is no recipe. You should be able to see the spalt starting on the end grain. You cant really let it go too long unless you leave them til rot sets in. Once the air gets at it and you let them sit for a while keeping them drying slowly you shouldnt have any problem.

[Don Stephan]

www.northernspalting.com and click the link for spalting info. Dr. Seri Robinson is the expert.

[Richard Coers]

The easiest way to spalt wood, is to cover it with chainsaw shavings or sawdust from spalted wood and keep it damp and covered. Short of that I like dried oak leaves, Miracle Grow, and cheap beer. You have to monitor sycamore pretty often, it goes from spalted to rotten really quickly!

[Jim Matthews]

What's the appeal of spalting clean Sycamore?
Is it for turning?

https://i.imgur.com/zpL9M60.jpg

[Scott T Smith]

What's the appeal of spalting clean Sycamore?
Is it for turning?

https://i.imgur.com/zpL9M60.jpg

Jim, spalted sycamore can be stunning.

Thomas, either tarp the logs or cover them in sawdust until the end of next summer, and then have them milled. They will spalt well by then, but should not be too far gone.

Also, if you quartersaw them they won't distort much at all.

Spalting occurs best during the hot summer. We're at the end of it but the sawdust and tarp will help keep the logs warm for a while longer.

[Prashun Patel]

I’d normally not second guess Scott, but I will offer my experience having attempted this a couple times:

If you just cut off the air you risk the wrong kind of spalting: Black mold spots. You also risk cracking and checking the logs into an unusable state.

Imho, controlled spalting is best done on individual boards, burying them in soil and specific fungi (using a starter from other logs) and checking it frequently.

Consider finding a sawyer to mill the boards (or rough turn bowl blanks) and then spalting individual pieces.

Ymmv

[Scott T Smith]

I’d normally not second guess Scott, but I will offer my experience having attempted this a couple times:

If you just cut off the air you risk the wrong kind of applying: Black mold spots. You also risk cracking and checking the logs into an unusable state.

Imho, controlled spalting is best done on individual boards, burying them in soil and specific fungi (using a starter from other logs) and checking it frequently.

Consider finding a sawyer to mill the boards (or rough turn bowl blanks) and then spring individual pieces.

Ymmv

Prashun - don't worry about second guessing me - I greatly respect your knowledge and experience.

Typically when I'm spalting logs, I'll simply leave them sitting in the log yard for 1 - 2 years. It works best if the logs are cut in the early summer. I prefer this method for several reasons.

1 - it's easy and low cost - which is important when you're spalting in volume.
2 - By spalting in the log, when I mill I'm yielding book"spalted-matched" boards. When assembled into bookmatched table tops, they can be absolutely stunning.

The benefit of the sawdust and tarp is that it retains warmth - which is more important for the next couple of months. Spalting requires temps in excess of 70 degrees or so.