Spalting

Re: Spalting

Barry Irby

I have heard the same thing. I have not tried it, but am curious about it. There's a lot to be said for timing the process. If you don't wait long enough, you get little or nothing, to long and you have rot. My understanding is you need to put the pieces in the shade and keep them damp. May be wide to turn them over after a while. I have heard people say you can start the process by pouring beer on them. Somehow, I doubt that and it seems like a waste of beer. Wonder if you could run it through your kidneys first?

I vaguely recall a video about a woman college professor/Researching that was the "Queen of Spalt". Might try researching that. She may work for the Forest Products Lab or forestry service.

PS. My point was....

Barry Irby

You should set up a number of pieces and have a few spares you can cut up to see the inside as you go along.

Dr. Sara Robinson has recently published ...

JamieDonaldson

…...the bible of spalting, and it a monumental encyclopedia of everything relating to spalting. I have had some success spalting log sections by standing them on end in a plastic bag in a shallow puddle of 1/2 Miracle Grow and 1/2 beer, and not used beer! It works with some woods better than others, and I especially like Hackberry fresh cut to speed the process.

Re: Dr. Sara Robinson has recently published ...

mikeee12345

You can purchase specific strains of fungus from Sara Robinson to spalt wood with. If you have shavings left over from other spalted pieces of wood you can find a spot in your garden and turn the wood chips into the ground and add water and mix the soil around. This will help add the fungus spores to the soil and you can place your pieces of wood end grain down into the soil and cover it with black plastic. If the soil gets dried out or is exposed to direct sun light you will limit the spore growth. You can also do this by putting the soil in a plastic bag or bucket and placing this in a shaded location and keep it from drying out by adding a little water if it looks like it is drying out. Do not use city water as this is usually chlorinated or fluorinated which fungus spores do not like. If you want a specific color of spalting you can boil the wood first and let it cool down and then inoculate it with the spores you have purchased and place the wood in a sterilized bed of soil that has also been sterilized by steam or boiling. This process is very similar to growing mushrooms if you are familiar with that process. Wild spore spalting can produce various results depending on the spores that are in your soils. Inoculating the wood is done by painting the liquid spores onto the end grain of the wood pieces and keeping them in a proper damp and warm environment.

Spalted wood chips works best for me

Dick Coers

I've cut up entire logs that had a lot of spalting. I raked up the chainsaw mess, bagged it, and took it home for spalting more maple. Covered the plain stock with the chips, and kept it moist. Best result I ever had! A bit like sour dough bread starter. Once you get the first bags of chips, you just keep making more spalted wood!

Re: Spalting

Mike Mills

Here a a few links to Sara on you tube. The first is long (about an hour an half).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctDFsIciRCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWedsgkoxYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9hvbOzst94

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZUir8hWvnI

Dr Sara Robinson book

John K Jordan

I bought that (big) book when it was released and it is fascinating reading. I had no idea how extensively spalted wood was used over the centuries solely for the permanent colors specific fungi leave behind.

I also found it interesting that we who shape wood think of spalting as the wonderful black lines. She explains how the spalting is actually the volume between the lines. The lines, called "zone lines", are impenetrable walls of defense erected by a fungal colony when it encounters a competing colony while advancing through the wood The two enemies might have come from different spores or even where one colony branched then met up again.

Dr Robinson provides details on how to spalt wood starting with pure fungal sources but I don't remember specific advice on the method that would interest woodturners, but it's been a while since I've looked through the book - I'll try to look for that soon. I did save a forum discussion on spalting by standing log sections on the ground - I think I can find that.

JKJ

Re: Spalting

Reed Gray

"The only one who calls me Sara is my mother", Dr. Spalt, Seri Robertson.... One of the most interesting demonstrations I have ever seen because every thing I knew about spalting was wrong... I didn't look at the list of demonstrators for the Symposium, but I would guess she will be there. Very interesting young woman. Also a pretty good turner. Her program at Oregon State is to extract the fungii for dye. They are light fast for hundreds of years.

robo hippy

Re: Spalting

Reed Gray

Oops, can never remember Robinson or Robertson....

Spalting how-to

John K Jordan

I checked my files. I have one article from FWW that looks reasonable:

Spalting wood http://www.finewoodworking.com/2009/04/14/spalt-your-own-lumber

Also, this is from Charles Richards, might be useful.

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I don't have a fool proof method but with the species i know will spalt from my personal experience here's what I do:

I cut most of my logs 4-6 inches longer than the diameter, so if the log is 17 inches in diameter I cut it no shorter than 21-24 inches long. For me it doesn't make any difference how long the log piece is just want to be able to handle it.

Sometimes I do stack end on pieces on top of each other so help spalting thinking that the moisture coming out of the endgrain staws helps the piece on the bottom spalt quicker. Not sure about that either. It seems the more you would cover up the wood with leaves, etc the easier it would be to let it get to far in the process before you realized it.

Logs are kept outside in the open end up

top end sometimes has some dirt thrown on it

check the log in 6 months by cutting 1/2 inch off the end to have a look see

if no spalting yet check monthly

When I cut a piece off the end I just flip the log over on its side and cut off 1/2 inch or so. Either end for the cut, not big deal. If it's not ready it gets flipped back up on its end for another month. Like you, I cut up left over pieces of bowl blanks and other spalted pieces for smaller projects.

From experience the only time I vary from this is with river birch. At least in my area (south Georgia) it will spalt in about 4 months. Everything else seems to take 6-9 months. I keep a number of logs that routinely spalt around the place and check regularly depending on where they are in the process above. Since I sell my pieces and most folks seem to gravitate to spalted bowls so I try to keep those pieces coming along all the time.

The wood I work with in my area that spalts pretty easily is:

river birch

pecan

hickory

maple

magnolia

bay

oak

sweet gum

black gum

poplar

dogwood

(poplar takes a little longer than 6 months- more like 12 months)- love to see mushrooms growing on any log of mine cause 90% of the time its spalted

What doesn't work so well:

bradford pear- not much character change for me.

dogwood- I know you like this wood after reading some of your posts

camphor- not that dramatic

holly (JKJ)

I forgot to mention that I have tried covering the wood with a tarp and putting the logs on a pallet instead of the ground. At least at this point I don't think any of that helps. Not a scientific experiment but just an observation. I have read that the fungus in everywhere so if the wood has a potential to spalt I guess it will do it not matter how I help.

I have some magnolia logs outside the shop end up sitting on a plastic pallet and they spalted in about 6 months. Most of the time I do use Anchorseal on the ends before stacking end up and it doesn't seem to matter with the outcome.

I'm just trying to grow a perpetual spalt garden 'cause I like the way it looks..... never tasted it mind you.

Charles



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Her book is a big deal around here *LINK*

Dick Coers

She dedicated it to my friend Dave Bloom. Dave was her industrial arts teacher, and is a member of Central IL Woodturners Club. Mentions him and shows a picture about 1 minute into the video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA4TYc8a1IQ&feature=youtu.be

Re: Spalting

Ron Borowicz

My question has to do with stopping the spalting process which is followed by eventual punky and then rotting. Suppose I follow the steps to encourage spalting and the spalting does occur but I can't get to the block for "awhile".

Does removing it from outdoors and storing it in my shop stop/slow down the spalting, punky, rot process?

Re: Spalting

John Veerkamp

spalting and decay will stop as soon as you get the moisture content down.Bringing it into air-conditioned space with good air circulation is enough to do the job.

Re: Spalting

Leo Van Der Loo

The spalting/rotting process stops when the moisture level goes below 20 %.

The problem is getting the moisture down inside the wood where the spalting/rotting is happening, having the outside being dry does not help with the inside for quite a long time.

So really you can’t have it just sit and wait till you have time, roughing it out to make the wood thin and have it dry rather quickly is the answer to stop the spalting/rotting process.

You could throw it in the freezer

Dick Coers

I think you could also submerge it in water. Pretty sure that would starve the fungus of oxygen and stop the process. Never done either, just thinking out loud.

Re: You could throw it in the freezer

mikeee12345

You could also boil the blank or microwave the blank, both of these will kill the fungus spores.

Re: Spalting

Don Stephan

Dr Robinson likely has made more experiments on spalting than anyone else, and clearly explains her findings in the book. Natural spalting is somewhat hit or miss as to which fungus or fungi move in, exactly when, and what the resullts are. Cultures from her lab are not that expensive, and like sourdough starter can be kept going for a long long time.

Re: Spalting

mikeee12345

If you like to experiment with the fungi you can use a petri dish and use a spalted shaving to start your own spores. Agar Agar is the material you cook up and pour into multiple petri dishes and add a wood shaving to. The agar is boiled like Jello and poured into each dish and allowed to cool with the lid covering each petri dish. You want to keep the petri dishes sterile and the agar sterile which is the food for the fungi. As the spores grow it will look similar to mold growing across the agar, out of this material you want to select a pure looking sample of the materials and use a sterile instrument to remove a small portion and transfer into another sterile petri dish with agar agar in the bottom. This process separates any other contaminate spores from the sample you are growing. This type of work is usually done inside a sterile environment inside a "glove box" which gets sterilized before you open the petri dishes and transfer samples of the spores. Doing this in open air runs a high risk of contaminating your spalting spores with mold, bacteria, germs that float around in the open air. Nature has been doing this for millions of years so it is not too difficult to accomplish at home in your kitchen or shop.

Re: Spalting

Don Stephan

Not knowing where to find petri dishes, I took the suggestion on Dr. Seri's handouts and bought a dozen small jelly jars. And I used fungi I purchased from her. The jelly jars were to make new "starts" of the fungi, as is done with sourdough bread starter.

Re: Spalting

mikeee12345

The jelly jars also work as you can boil them in water to sterilize the jars and lids. You can purchase petri dishes on the internet and they usually come pre-sterilized in a sealed plastic sleeve. The flat shallow petri dishes make it easier to take select samples of the culture being grown in the dish to transfer into other containers.