Question about storing spalted Maple

[Ted Evans]

I have a good bit of Maple in various stages of spalting from initial stages to advanced. The tree was cut late last summer and most of it has been on the ground until recently. Due to my restricted time for turning, it will be many months before I can work on more than a few pieces of this wood. I plan on coating the ends with Anchorseal and storing the wood on pallets in my basement. My question is, stored in this manner, will the spalting continue, slow down or stop?

Thanks for your input and suggestions.

[Reed Gray]

In a dry area, the spalting will slow down and continue as long as there is any moisture in the wood. It will stop when it is totally dry. I have found that our big leaf maple can go from spalted to rotten in about 2 years when left outside.

robo hippy

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have a good bit of Maple in various stages of spalting from initial stages to advanced. The tree was cut late last summer and most of it has been on the ground until recently. Due to my restricted time for turning, it will be many months before I can work on more than a few pieces of this wood. I plan on coating the ends with Anchorseal and storing the wood on pallets in my basement. My question is, stored in this manner, will the spalting continue, slow down or stop?

Thanks for your input and suggestions.

Ted you are between a rock and a hard place so to speak, on the one hand you don't want the wood to split so you can't let it dry in log form, and on the other hand the rotting process continues on as long as the wood is wet enough for that, I think IIRC the wood has to be below the 20% moisture for the spalting/rotting to stop.

Sealing the ends will give you some extra time in the prevention of the wood splitting, the spalting will continue, cooling the wood will slow that down, right to stopping it if frozen solid.

I would say turn as much as you can, and go for the nicest and best pieces first, so you keep any losses to the less desirable pieces.

Have fun and take care

[Ernie Nyvall]

What has been written is all true, but wood does some funny things sometimes, and what I've experienced on a couple of occasions maybe species, climate, and or mold spore specific.

I cut a couple of Bradford pears down, sealed the ends, and put them in the shop immediately. Shelves were full so they stood separate of each other. I could see spalting starting through the wax coating right away, and in one year when I turned a piece, it was punky throughout. Walnut and mesquite stacked together just got hard with no spalting even in the sap wood.

Another time I got some African mahogany that had been in a flood, then dried and stacked in a warehouse for 20 years. Through the rough cut I could see what was some beautiful crotch feathering. Just a gold mine it seemed. Luckily the guy gave me a few samples to check out because I had noticed the wood was cupped on two sides and wasn't sure what was going on with it. I got it home and planed it, and the inside was way past punky and almost all powder. No grain structure left at all. It was so strange that the outside was solid all the way around, but only about 1/32 thick. No evidence of any problem on the outside with the exception of the cupping.

I haven't had this sort of problem with anything else, but I suppose certain conditions make it happen. Good luck, and as Leo wrote, turn as much as you can.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with everything written. My experience is turn as much as you can and the best wood.