Spalted Liquid Amber

[CHARLES D Richards]

ok guys, here's a little more encouragement to cut some sweet gum and have a little patience to allow it to spalt. I cut up another log today, 17 inches in diameter, and roughed out these 2 bowls that ended up being 16" x 7". Sometimes it's amazing to see the difference in wood on the opposite side of the same log.

cheers,
Dave

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[Mike Turner]

Beautiful piece!!!!! What kind of camera did you use?

[John K Jordan]

Beautiful piece!!!!! What kind of camera did you use?

Thank you Mike!

The camera I use now is a Canon 70D - that shot was with a Canon 100mm macro lens, tripod, wired shutter release, manual focus.
(It's this lens, if anyone is interested: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NEGTSI )

I was surprised by the quality of this camera and I keep running into people who use them. I took some llamas to a TV studio last year for a commercial and noticed the they were using the same camera for the "footage"!

This is my third digital SLR after many years of film and darkrooms. (anyone need a 4x5 Crown Graphic?) Life is so, so, so much simpler now. (At least the photograph part...)

JKJ

[Damon McLaughlin]

Do logs still need to be green to be "planted" for spalting? Or can one take a dry log and plant it? My challenge where I live is that the soil is very sandy, is keeping it moist important? I would love to try spalting some of the wood I have if I can (pine, cottonwood, birch). Thanks.

[CHARLES D Richards]

Do logs still need to be green to be "planted" for spalting? Or can one take a dry log and plant it? My challenge where I live is that the soil is very sandy, is keeping it moist important? I would love to try spalting some of the wood I have if I can (pine, cottonwood, birch). Thanks.

David, at least to my understanding you need moisture to have wood spalt so green wood is better. Remember that wood dries at 1 inch per year according to what I've been taught so even wood that appears to be dry on the ends may not be dry an inch or two into the wood. What I would suggest is put the logs end up on the ground ( you don't have to put them on dirt, see pics below) just make sure they have dirt contact. Or you could put them on a pallet end up and wait it out. In my area it takes about 6 months to spalt so patience is golden. Just experiment with whatever woods you want to, if it doesn't work after 6-8 months then you can just turn the wood anyway.

Here's a couple of pics of some piles of wood on either side of my shop door. One is one concrete and the other is on a plastic palate. The magnolia log (not cut) on the top in the first picture has already spalted after 6-7 months it it never was on the dirt, just on top of another log. I sometimes date the logs so I know they been there at least 6 months. It is possible that spalting times could be different in your area.

hope this helps,
Dave

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[brian zawatsky]

How do you keep your logs from checking to the point of being unusable?

[John K Jordan]

How do you keep your logs from checking to the point of being unusable?

Me? This may be way more than you wanted to know but someone may be interested.

I wax the ends with Anchorseal as soon as the tree is cut, and store the logs out of the sun until I can make turning blanks or fire up my sawmill. I mostly turn dry wood and prefer spindle work, boxes, and other small things.

I cut chunks up as soon as possible into turning blanks, wax the ends well (and wax certain sides, depending) and set them up to dry. I mostly turn smaller things but do cut some larger bowl blanks which mostly survive. If left in the round, almost all tree sections will check and split, some worse than others.

Simply cutting a log section in half down the pith gives the wood room to move and warp from the stress instead of crack. Cutting a saw kerf down the length all the way to the pith is the next best thing. The smaller the pieces are cut into, the more likely they will dry without cracking. Note that when I prepare blanks I cut away any existing checks or cracks on the ends. If left on the blanks they can propagate easily. (For anyone who might not know how to check if they are removed completely, just cut a thin slice off the end and bend it and see if it breaks easily along a crack. If it does, cut some more off.) If a crack appears to go deeply into the wood I cut my losses and make smaller blanks out of it.

I wax the sides of certain species known to be problematic, usually on the sides where rings are closer to tangent (opposite of quartersawn surfaces) where the shrinking stresses are the highest. I also wax transitions between heartwood and sapwood on certain species known for excessive shrinkage. (e.g. dogwood)

When I prepare a blank, I always mark the species and the month/year on the side. This tells me how long it's been drying AND keeps me from guessing what kind of wood it is!

After the turning squares dry some (months or years) I put them back on the sawmill and cut away any warpage and any end cracks that have developed. This not only give be better squares to work with but shows me what the figure looks like on the sides and reveals any defects. If I decide to keep them with the defects, I mark each defect with a red Sharpie so I won't over look it when I turn it someday.

All this doesn't help much for who turn mostly turn bowls, hollow forms, and natural edged things green wood. The answer is you usually can't easily prevent short log sections from self destructing over time. Seal immediately and well, of course. Cut to the desired blank size as soon as possible. At least cut in half or make a chainsaw cut down one side to the center. Keeping the pieces cool, out of the weather, and in the shade can help delay the inevitable. Keeping the ends wet can help some. (The spalting methods discussed keep the end on the ground wet. I cover the other end and pour water on it when it gets dry.) John Lucas reports good success wrapping big green blanks with plastic wrap, leaving the bark and bottom unwrapped. There are some good things you can do for long-term storage that are impractical for most people: Freeze the wood, it will last forever. (I've done this for small chunks.) Immerse them in water (ponding), changing the water often. (Some people have used 55-gallon drums for this.) Timber has been dredged up from the bottom of lakes and creeks that is still in perfect condition. A wood dealer from South American told me they boil all their wood blanks and roughed bowls. (Boiling apparently softens the lignum and makes the wood more elastic.) The last method I know: stick to very stable species! (sassafras and eastern red cedar are my favorites for this.)

The best advice probably comes from two people. One expert, Steven Russell, recommends something he learned the hard way: never acquire more green wood than you can turn in a week or two. In some parts of the country green wood is so abundant there is always more. It is easy to take more than you can use and end up with piles of rotting firewood.

The other advice comes from the other John Jordan woodturner in TN, the famous one. He says he never gets wood in short log sections. He buys and pays someone to deliver the entire log, sets it up off the ground, and keeps as cool as possible and out of the sun. When he is ready to turn something he cuts off 6" with the chainsaw and throws it away, inspects the newly exposed end of the log, and if it is OK he cuts off what he needs for just this one turning. This is the way he always works and it always works. This method might be difficult for those who don't have room to keep whole logs or like a huge variety of species. BTW, he does store chunks of wet wood for a short time (a day or so) by wrapping them in plastic like saran wrap, for example, to carry to a demo or class. He gave me one of his hollow form blanks that was wrapped up like this.

OK, I quit now!

JKJ

[Bob Bouis]

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It's tough to wrap your head around the idea that saving the best for last isn't the right way to go about it, but I'd add that you ought to turn or cut the best pieces first. Speaking of...

Also, to quibble a little, in my experience cutting a log into halves is usually not a good idea unless you plan to eventually cut it into quarters. After cutting in half you have a week or so before a crack forms from the center at a 90 degree angle to your cut.

[brian zawatsky]

<img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=352466"/> <img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=352467"/> It's tough to wrap your head around the idea that saving the best for last isn't the right way to go about it, but I'd add that you ought to turn or cut the best pieces first. Speaking of... Also, to quibble a little, in my experience cutting a log into halves is usually not a good idea unless you plan to eventually cut it into quarters. After cutting in half you have a week or so before a crack forms from the center at a 90 degree angle to your cut.

Wow Bob that is beautiful, you hit the jackpot on that log. What kind of wood is that?

[Bob Bouis]

It's just sweet gum. Some trees have almost no heartwood and some have lots. That one had lots, though I'm not sure if it is all true heartwood. Sometimes you see sweetgum with figured rings in the sapwood. This one looks like it had them and had darkened sapwood between that and the heartwood. Maybe it was discolored because the tree was unhealthy, or maybe it transitioning to heartwood. I have no idea.

There were six logs there and only the three small ones had figure like this. The rest had almost no heartwood to speak of.

I have seen sweet gum trees that have very little heartwood at the base and more the further up you go, which makes no sense to me, but it's a real phenomenon. So always check up six or eight feet if you have the chance.

[John K Jordan]

Also, to quibble a little, in my experience cutting a log into halves is usually not a good idea unless you plan to eventually cut it into quarters. After cutting in half you have a week or so before a crack forms from the center at a 90 degree angle to your cut.

"Usually" may be the key, or perhaps even "sometimes". In my experience much of how a given log section behaves depends on the species and some is the individual tree. I've had cherry that started to crack an hour after felling and some from one particular cherry tree that refused to crack even when left in the sun. Years later one 18" round left outside still has nothing but minor end checking. Go figure. (I hope I see another cherry like that some day! Besides the stability, that tree had amazing color and figure.)

Dogwood is one that left in the round will "usually" split down to the pith and then the split will open up to form a huge gap as the wood dries out. The wood is otherwise so strong that cutting the log section in half or even making a single saw cut lets me control where the stresses are relieved. It is usually recommended to not only cut in half but to remove a slice out of the middle that contains the pith. The thickness of the slice depends on the diameter and experience with that species. I don't do this since my rounds go very soon to the bandsaw where I decide how to best section. Removing a center slices limits what I can do within each half.

For anyone interested in wood, I highly recommend R. Bruce Hoadley's book "Understanding Wood".
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding.../dp/B004WYO862

JKJ

[Bob Bouis]

My problem is that I live in the 'burbs and even though I have 1300 sq ft of garage space (plus a 400 sq ft attic with real stairs and some outdoor storage), I am loaded down. I have 1500 bd ft of walnut stickered (bought it, didn't cut it myself), plus turning blanks, etc. I have been holding onto it because, supposedly, my father is going to build a new barn any day now, and it's going to go in there eventually. For now it's driving me nuts.

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Let the wood hoarding resume!

[John Hart]

Beautiful little piece John. Love it.

Oh...and also love the picture of the bee. Nice shot!!

[John K Jordan]

Beautiful little piece John. Love it.
Oh...and also love the picture of the bee. Nice shot!!

Thanks! I've enjoyed photography for over 50 years now, maybe 5 darkrooms and a pile of cameras. Digital sure has made things easier! Shoot 500-600 photos at a wedding these days - no problem.

Last time I checked I had over 56,000 pictures in my photo directories; I can't even imagine paying for that much film, let alone the processing. Some of my favorites are of animals.

Photos of the bees are among the most difficult I've ever attempted. I feel fortunate to have gotten some keepers.

JKJ