Show me your.................. spalting receipe

[Chris Barton]

I know plenty of folks that spalt their wood and it seems that almost everyone has a different receipe. I think it would be very interesting to share them and explain why you do (that vodo, that you do) it a given way.

[Corey Hallagan]

Chris, I have never spalted wood but have looked into it. Doesn't work well on dry wood at all I guess which is what I turn mostly. Anyway, here are some things on the net I found:

http://www.ovwg.org/New-OVWG-Site/Techniques/spaltingwood.htm

http://www.woodturninglearn.net/spalting.html

http://www.woodcentral.com/russ/russ4.shtml

[Bart Leetch]

In the Pacific North West up here on Whidbey Island on Puget Sound I just take it outside & throw it on the ground on its side & forget for six months to a year or longer. If I didn't tell you where I am the recipe wouldn't work & the description would have been real short.

It works really it does see this picture.

[Travis Stinson]

Chris, I've had good luck by sealing 1 end of a log section with Anchorseal and standing it upright in a shady spot, with the unsealed end on the ground.

[Raymond Overman]

1) Find a hickory log
2) Cut in lengths 4-5 inches longer than the diameter to accomodate cutting cracks out of a blank
3) Place length of log with one end down on soft, moist ground generally found where a solid layer of leaf mold or compost has been.
4) Leave it alone for a year or more or when you get around to it
5) Spalt

That's pretty much it. It takes time and patience and a shady spot with green wood. Good luck.

[Frank Fusco]

I tried a spalting experiment with some pen blanks I cut from box elder. They were put in a plastic bucket, layered with rotting material from the ground, rotten logs, leaves, etc. and kept moist. This mess stayed in the bucket about three months. The finished :eek: product came out looking like the top picture. Pretty ugly. I turned one to round for this thread. Good choice, big lousy knot and full of wormie holes, no good for a pen. The wood was surprisingly very hard. Harder than box elder I have turned in the past. But as bottom picture shows, it did get streaking from the spalt process. No colors has I had hoped for though. I'm not happy with the results and will probably not turn the two dozen blanks I have left. Into scrap heap. It was an experiment.

[Rob Bourgeois]

Just put it in my garage unsealed....right on the floor.