spalted maple score, need advice!

[Mark Pruitt]

A colleague of mine told me yesterday that she had a maple tree cut down in her yard. It had some fungus growing and evidence of insects. I loaded several logs last night; I'll have to go back tonight 'cause my chainsaw wimped out on me.:rolleyes:

Anyway, here's the question. From the ends of some of the logs it is quite obvious that spalting is taking place, and I want to take the best possible advantage of it. I know I need to go ahead and saw the logs down the pith to prevent cracking, and seal the ends. I confess, however, that I do not fully understand the spalting process. If I simply set these logs aside for several months, will the process continue? If so, how do I know when is the optimal time to turn this wood?

If anyone could bring me up to speed on this I'd sure appreciate it. TIA!:)
BTW, no pics yet. It was too dark.

[William Fourness]

Spalting happens when a fungus feeds on the reamaining sugar in the the wood. This is why you find a lot of sugar/hard maple spalt. How fast and how well the spalting happens is determend by the sugar content of the wood, moisture factor, and warmth.
We gather material here in Pennstlvania during March when the sap is most active and the sugar is the highest. We have a good we spot in the ground were we start our piles. We lay down a good base of hardwood sawdust on the ground, lay of logs/blocks, then another layer of hardwood sawdust more wood and etc. Once we have our desired pile size, grab the garden hose soak it up good. Then cover with black plastic and wait. We let ours set a full year before checking spalting.
The sawdust between the piles is start food for the fungus, and helps hold moisture. We do Sugar Maple, Red Beech, Black Birch and Apple wood before. Hope this has helped a bit.

[Jim Becker]

As long as there is adequate moisture, the spalting will continue. Do remember, however, that this is a decomposition process and there IS a point of no-return. I suggest you cut a few half-logs now to see where things are and make a decision on whether to cut the rest or wait once you see what is "in there".

[Andy Hoyt]

Mark - Even though I've turned a fair amount of spalted stuff, I'm kinda clueless on the topic in terms of hands-on inducement

Most of my experience comes from the Hickory I got just about a year ago from Mike Cutler. He buried full logs (8' long or so) under leaves and left them alone for about three years. Two might have been better, since a lot of it was too far gone to be turnable - but the spalting was downright awesome.

I've heard that others have had luck with setting full round chunks on concrete "for a while". And others have done the same on raw ground.

Since the stock is free, my sugggestion would be to continue to gather ideas and then try them all. And then, from time to time just "harvest" a chunk and spin it up for analysis.

[Mark Pruitt]

OK, I'm a little clearer now, I think. Two questions for clarification:
(1) It sounds like sealing the end grain on these logs will prevent further spalting--correct or no?
(2) It sounds like you leave the log intact while allowing spalting to progress rather than sawing down the pith; aren't you opening yourself up to an unfavorable outcome by having cracks radiate from the pith?

If I need to put 'em outside, hose 'em down, and cover 'em up....well that's going to run against my instincts, but if that will net me a few nicer looking bowls, then I guess that's exactly what I need to do.:eek:

I just want to try and get my hands on some of the eye-popping wood I see here from time to time, and I figure this may be just such an opportunity.

Thanks again.

[George Tokarev]

Spalting is caused by a fungus which feeds on the cellulose or lignin, which is why the wood goes to mushy so rapidly. Pretty good information here, as always. www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/producing_spalted_wood.pdf (http://firstgovsearch.gov/search?v%3aproject=firstgov&v%3afile=viv_615%4021%3aRNBP1P&v%3astate=root%7croot&opener=full-window&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fpl.fs.fed.us%2fdocumnts%2fte chline%2fproducing_spalted_wood.pdf&rid=Ndoc0&v%3aframe=redirect&rsource=firstgov-msn&v%3astate=%28root%29%7croot&rrank=0&)

As the keys to the continuation are moisture and temperature, you can help things along by keeping them within limits. Gravity plays, so laying the log on its side has proven to be the best for me. Roll it a quarter turn when you see some gunk forming to try and keep things evened out around the log. The moisture will migrate with gravity, and if you're on concrete, or even the ground, the moisture from there will come up to help. Bark holds moisture well, so keep it on the log, and make your sections about 4 inches longer on each end to enable you to clear all end checks. Birch, with its waterproof bark is the easiest stuff to spalt, and quite attractive if you get it round and round. Since birch is especially resistant to heart checks, you can even make crosscut slab stuff with it with minimal loss.

[John Taylor]

HI

I have done this a few times, mostly successfully but sometimes not, it is partly the luck of the draw.

The first thing I would do is cut one log to see how far the spalting has gone and make sure the wood is usable, and maybe even turn a piece just to check. I have found that sometimes the part of the log that was touching the earth is too far gone to be usable.

If it has gone as far as you want slab it up and seal the ends and put it somewhere dry to dry out. Sealing the ends and putting it somewhere dry will not stop the fungus immediately but as the wood dries out the fungus will be killed off.

If you want to spalt it more there are a couple of different options, for large quantities the methods outlined above work well. For smaller quantities, or if you want to hurry the process, wrap the log in 2 or 3 layers of saran wrap or plastic sheeting, this will seal the moisture in and act like a greenhouse to increase the spread/growth of the fungus. Once wrapped store in a warm place out of direct sunlight and sit back and wait. The amount of time it takes depends on how far it has already spread and seems to vary from log to log, the only way to check is to turn a piece when you think it is ready but it usually takes between 6 to 18 months.

Hope this helps

John

[Travis Stinson]

Mark, I've had good luck with sealing one end and standing the section on end, with the unsealed end on bare ground in a shady spot.

[Jim Ketron]

Question 1: the answer is No. As long as there is moisture in the wood it will continue spalting sealed or unsealed. Almost all of my last Ambrosia Maple haul Spalted while in the shop with Anchorseal on it!

Question 2: you can cut them it really doesn't matter it will still spalt if under the right conditions.

[Mark Pruitt]

Thanks guys. I made it back over to my colleague's house after work, armed with a new blade on the chainsaw, and retrieved the rest of the load. Maybe between 40-50 bd. ft., not a great amount by some standards, but enough to keep me out of trouble for a little while.

I sorted the logs by how soon I thought I would be using them, and am in the process of sealing them. Also have cut most of them down the pith. It sounds like there is some possibility of further spalting if I leave them alone long enough. Some looked like there could still be bugs inside, they're staying outside for the time being. The others may go outside as well; with it being this time of the year, I'll have to figure out whether the garage or the outdoors is the best place to encourage further spalting.

Thanks again.