Spalted [Insert Name of Wood Here] Bowl

[Ben Gastfriend]

I was able to finish this one up today. Bought the wood at the woodworking store down the street. Don't know what the wood is, all I know is that it is nice, and spalted, with a bunch of wormholes. Can anybody help me out with the type of wood?

6"x3". Sanded to 600. Finished with carnuba.
Comments and critiques welcome.

[Curt Fuller]

I can't help you with the wood ID, but it's very pretty and a nice looking bowl!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ben - really nice looking bowl! Great form - beautiful wood! My guess would be Ambrosia Maple - just because of the markings. No matter what it is - you did a really nice job on the bowl! Keep it up - looking forward to your next one!

[Terry Quiram]

Ben

Nice bowl with wicked good spalt. Looking at the grain in the pic of the bottom I would say your bowl is Sycamore.

Terry

[curtis rosche]

thats definatley ambrosia maple. the worms make the colors. if you look at the spot inside the dark ring, on the right in the second picture, you can see that shimmery grain pattern that is distinctive of maple

[Bob Hallowell]

Nice looking bowl Ben, I would say maple also

Bob

[Dick Strauss]

Ben,
It might be sycamore...there is a syc like grain pattern in the black spalted oval on one side of the bowl.

Nice bowl by the way...

[Steve Knowlton]

Good Looking Bowl I Would Say Holly.

[Bruce Pennell]

Ben another great bowl, sure like your work...Bruce
PS sorry can't help on the wood type....just looks great.

[Burt Alcantara]

Beautiful bowl Ben. I've got some maple sitting around to season. I'm hoping I get color like yours. Great stuff.

Burt

[Dennis Ford]

Nice bowl!
It looks like Hackberry to me. ;)

[John Dodson]

I see medullary rays where the spalting forms a circle -- my vote is sycamore. :D

[Richard Madison]

Another vote for hackberry.

[Bill Dunn jr]

Nice looking bowl. Looks like Spalted Maple to me also. Here is a pic of a bowl I did a few years ago. Thepics not that great but I think you can see the similarities.

[Robert McGowen]

No help on the wood, but it is a very nice bowl. I like the upward slope of the rim.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Ben,
It might be sycamore...there is a syc like grain pattern in the black spalted oval on one side of the bowl.

Nice bowl by the way...



I agree with the sycamore vote, mostly because of the third picture; the grain pattern of sycamore when it is quartersawn is very characteristic; whatever it is it is definitely NOT ambrosia maple. They have very defined streaks that don't typically swirl around like this; they usually run in vertical directions, along the long grain direction,at least in my limited experience. "THE" ambrosia beetle carries a particular fungus which leaves the greenish/redbrown streaks. Other insect larvae may have caused those holes. Also, further complicating the identification, a lot of ambrosia maple bowls that I've seen usually have some degree of spalting. I'm by no means an expert, but I tend to separated them in my mind by the patterns of the fungal infection--both ambrosia maple streaking and spalting are caused by fungal colonies growing in the wood. Usually the patterns I see that are very uneven and irregular shaped, I call "spalting", and those that have streaks that run with the long grain and streaks have beetle holes, I call ambrosia.

[David Newson]

That's a nice piece of spalted wood my guess is Sycamore or Maple ? Ben nice bowl as well with good form.

[Jerry Rhoads]

Looks like some of the Spalted Honey Locust that I have.
It loses it's orange color and turns white to light yellow.

Jerry

[John Bartley]

Based on the colouring of the spalting and the whiteness of the wood I would have guessed that it's birch. Based on the grain I would have guessed that it's Elm.

cheers