Stop Spalting

[Tom Collins]

I have been looking at my spalted hickory firewood pieces and have decided to try and salvage some pieces for goblets.

My next question is how do I stop the spalting(decay) process?:confused: I thought I would rough turn the pieces into cylinders. They will end up approx. 2"-2.5" in diameter and various lengths in the neighborhood of 8"-10". I am not going to be able to turn them to a final form right away and want to stop the decay process now since they are at a perfect stage.

How can I stop the decay in the cylinders without drying out or splitting the wood? Microwave? oven? boiling? I assume the trick is to kill the decay organisms with heat. Would I seal the ends before treatment(or maybe the whole cylinder)?

Any ideas? Thanks,

Tom C

[George Tokarev]

Dry or cool. The fungi require moisture primarily, temperature secondarily. http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/producing_spalted_wood.pdf

Good information, based on my experience.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Thanks George that is good info. Appreciate it.

[Tom Collins]

Thanks for the link to the site George. I had read that several times. I was mulling over your comments on cool and dry while I was out working in the yard and I came to the conclusion I am going to wrap the round blanks individually and put them in the freezer. That should stop the decay and give me time to work on them at my leasure. (after thawing)

LOML shouldn't mind. That's better than the rodents my daughters and I use to store in there when we were raising reptiles! :eek:

[George Tokarev]

If it's a frost-free freezer, leave it unwrapped and get the benefit of the periodic dehumidification to promote gradual drying.