Backyard Spalted Maple, How to treat it?

C.Edmondson

C.Edmondson

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Jan 22, 2009
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Today my father and I cut down a tree in the backyard and it turns out it was spalted. The stuff is really nice but I dont know what to do with it. Should I let it dry in logs, or go ahead and cut it into manageable pieces? Thanks very much for everyones help! I excited about it:), Charlie
 
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How large are the pieces? The most important thing is to control the rate of drying so that it does not warp, twist or split. If you cut it into large slabs then you can stack up the slabs with stickers in between and cover with plastic to keep the rain off. Leave it open enough for some air flow. Seal the ends with wax or stump sealer to slow down moisture loss.

If you do cut into small pieces you can melt some wax and then just dip the pieces into the wax to seal.

Alternately you can look around your area for a kiln. If you have a saw mill around they should be able to quote you a price to kiln dry. This is the fastest and safest manner as they have much more experience at drying woods.
 
It looks like it is mostly cut into fairly short pieces. Depending on what you have to cut it with I would most likely cut into slabs about 2" thick, stack and seal ends. You could try drying smaller pieces in an oven at lowest temp but that may still be to hot. You could also build a plywood box with a few vents to stack all of the slabs into. Then add a small electric heater with fan to circulate warm/dry air. Under normal conditions it takes about 1 year to dry each inch of thickness if air drying. The plywood box should reduce that down to about 2 weeks.

Also be prepared that no matter what you do you will loose a lot of wood do to splits. That is part of the expense of spalted wood.
 
Charlie,

If you know anybody at Wellborn Cabinet, they might could stick it in their drying kiln.

Robert
 
I have worked with some spalded wood and the key is to cut across the grain in slabs. I use a chainsaw and cut the logs into workable lengths which for me is about 3'. I then quarter the logs and you will see the spalding pattern on the cut face. I then slice each quarter into 2"+ thick slabe. obvisouly the first will be pretty wide and then all the others get more narrow. I paint or seal the ends and place in my drying cabnet (crappy wood box with holes in it) to dry for quite a while, maybe a year.

You will loose some wood off the ends do to cracking at least 3" per end that is why you wnat to leave long, It will twist a bit so its needs to be thick to cut into slabs.

A good sharp chainsaw and a solid method of holding the logs make this not too tough. Use a good chalk line with lots of chalk to mark along the length of the log to get a good slab.
 
I have a book all about working with wood, so I'll relay some of the info to you. Cut the wood into "boards" which I suggest are 1-1/4" thick, so you can trim the rough parts off and end with 1" wide. You can build a chainsaw mill to do this from the wet log. If you want more info on this, I can give you it.

Seal the endgrain of the boards with green wood sealer, latex house paint, or white glue to prevent checking and cracking.

Stack the boards (on concrete blocks) with stickers (3/4" dried wood strips) in between to allow air circulation. Have at least 3 stickers in each layer for the most support. Add weight on top to keep the boards as flat as possible while drying.

If you have the boards inside, during the first month or two, try to keep as high of humidity in the room as possible (try for 90%+) and work the humidity down to about 30% for the equilibrium moisture content of about 5-6%.

If the boards are outside, add at least one board of plywood above it, hanging off at least 6 inches on all sides, to prevent rain from getting into the boards.


The book doesn't say how long maple takes to dry, but you should probably use the slow to very slow times (slow is 6-15 months, and very slow is 9-18 months)
 
Patrick is right on, and I would say maybe even 2.5 thick would be good to keep twisting / warping down. Drying it in a kiln would be great, if you have the chance I would call and see if they would be willing to help with drying and slabbing it out for a few bucks. Nice big band saw sure beats the chainsaw anyday. :D

Larry
 
Thanks for all the help guys, I contacted a friend thats gonna saw it up sunday on his saw mill for me, were gonna quarter sew it and put it up in his attic for awhile, might take a year or so but hey , Charlie aint got nuttin but time,LOL
 
go mike said:
I have a book all about working with wood, so I'll relay some of the info to you. Cut the wood into "boards" which I suggest are 1-1/4" thick, so you can trim the rough parts off and end with 1" wide......
......The book doesn't say how long maple takes to dry, but you should probably use the slow to very slow times (slow is 6-15 months, and very slow is 9-18 months)
Click to expand...

Mike, with all due respect, posting from a book that you have, with no actual experience, is not helpful. As I have said before, reading is one thing ( and a very good thing) but real life experience is what you need to have in order to post technical advise. I realize that you were trying to be helpful, but once something gets posted or printed , there is always someone who will say, "But I saw it on the BF...or in Blade Magazine....or somewhere."

Cutting fresh cut wood to 1.25" flitches and trying to dry it will give you a high chance ( virtually a guarantee) of warp and twist.
It is usually cut 2.5" to 4" thick ,depending on what it is and how much moisture it has.

Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
Mike, with all due respect, posting from a book that you have, with no actual experience, is not helpful. As I have said before, reading is one thing ( and a very good thing) but real life experience is what you need to have in order to post technical advise. I realize that you were trying to be helpful, but once something gets posted or printed , there is always someone who will say, "But I saw it on the BF...or in Blade Magazine....or somewhere."

Cutting fresh cut wood to 1.25" flitches and trying to dry it will give you a high chance ( virtually a guarantee) of warp and twist.
It is usually cut 2.5" to 4" thick ,depending on what it is and how much moisture it has.

Stacy
Click to expand...

You're right about the "I read it on BF". I just read the thread about the lawnmower blades.

I wasn't thinking about wet wood when I said 1.25". I completely forgot about wood shrinkage as it dries.
 
C.Edmondson said:
Thanks for all the help guys, I contacted a friend thats gonna saw it up sunday on his saw mill for me, were gonna quarter sew it and put it up in his attic for awhile, might take a year or so but hey , Charlie aint got nuttin but time,LOL
Click to expand...

I would advise to mill the wood 2 & 1/2 inch or thicker. Sawmill guys will usually want to cut it thinner. Be sure to seal the ends. If you don't have any Anchorseal use some latex paint. Paint it on good and thick to seal the end grain. End checking happens because moisture leaves the wood faster at the open end than other areas. This will slow it down so the whole piece dries more evenly. Keep the wood stacked and stickered with some weight on top of the stack.

The spalted patterns will look a lot different when you mill the wood. What you are seeing so far is a cross section. When milled it may look like large blotches. You can get some surprising patterns though. The spalting is usually caused by bacteria. If you want the spalting to progress more don't sticker the wood when you stack it and cover with plastic to keep the moisture in the stack. It will look like a moldy mess after a month or so. When you are ready to stop the spalting restack and sticker the wood to make it dry out. The spalting continues as long as the wood is damp. Just don't let it go so long that it turns to mush.

You can't stabilize the wood until it is dry. Probably 2012. If you kiln dry it that is a different story. You want the moisture content down into the single digits before stabilizing. Fresh cut wood is usually upper 20s or higher. If you are going to kiln dry you should stack to air dry for a few months first. The initial drying time should be slow and even to keep from shocking the wood into a lot of twists and cracks. Maple is a fairly easy wood to dry with a lot less waste than a lot of other woods.

This info is not from a book but from years of learning by trying all the other ways first. Remember, the faster you dry the wood, the more waste there will be. Best thing is stack, sticker and forget about it for a few years.

Good luck. Mark
 
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