Question regarding diy spalted wood.

[Jesse Latham]

but what about the smell?

Probably wouldn't. Dave Roeder's "pasture wood"(horse apples from my pasture) didn't.

 

[Cushing H.]

Since there is a discussion of which beer that will work and which that would not work, what about making a starter culture with just yeast, water and sugar, or does it need to be real beer with malt included?

You know ... I actually started the discussion about beer mostly tongue-in-cheek (but still thinking it might be worth a try). I would think just using a starter culture from a packet of yeast would give a higher dose of yeast to get things going. Technically, a culture made just from water and sugar would not supply other nutrients to keep the yeast vigorous. You could make a starter from water and brewing malt, which would supply those nutrients (I used to culture my own brewing yeast using that type of culture). You could also add “yeast nutrient” (available at home brew stores) to a sugar solution ... however, a malt based starter would control the Ph of the solution much better- Ph being very important for the health of the yeast

 

[Eriksen]

Beer, yogurt, dirt, etc ... or a cocktail of all of them. Anything that will promote growth of mold and fungus.

If I make a cocktail of fallen leaves, yougurt, beer etc, can I then store it inside the house, or will it make a terrible odour?

 

[Randydb]

This whole thread is hilarious! I had no clue that you could create spalted wood at home. I life on the Pacific West Coast in a temperate rainforest. Everything spalts and rots pretty fast. I spot a maple that has come down and just leave it where it lies for a couple years and I have beautiful spalting. Cut any burls out of it right away and few crotches once it has spalted and they go on under my porch to dry. A year or so later they get cut into slabs and blocks. Never thought of actually trying to make spalting happen on purpose!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here is one of the old threads on the subject. Mark was a big supplier of fancy woods.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/experiment-making-buckeye-black-and-blue-i-hope.947790/

 

[weo]

Here is one of the old threads on the subject.

Thanks for posting this, Stacy. And once again, we humans are taught that nature work best when left alone...

 

[Cushing H.]

This whole thread is hilarious! I had no clue that you could create spalted wood at home. I life on the Pacific West Coast in a temperate rainforest. Everything spalts and rots pretty fast. I spot a maple that has come down and just leave it where it lies for a couple years and I have beautiful spalting. Cut any burls out of it right away and few crotches once it has spalted and they go on under my porch to dry. A year or so later they get cut into slabs and blocks. Never thought of actually trying to make spalting happen on purpose!

It is kind of interesting how fungus goes after fallen wood. For wild mushroom hunters, there is a mushroom called hen-of-the-wood. It is this huge (softball size or bigger) mushroom that is absolutely delicious. It grows exclusively on fallen oak trunks, blooming at the end of the summer. The thing though is that the mushroom you pick is just the end “flowering” stage of the fungus ... and does not appear on the outside until the inside of the entire section of tree trunk is shot through with fungus. I saw one growing once aside a running trail. One day went by, and someone had cleanly sliced it off at the bottom. I bet the wood would have been cool to cut into and look at

 

[Eriksen]

This whole thread is hilarious! I had no clue that you could create spalted wood at home. I life on the Pacific West Coast in a temperate rainforest. Everything spalts and rots pretty fast. I spot a maple that has come down and just leave it where it lies for a couple years and I have beautiful spalting. Cut any burls out of it right away and few crotches once it has spalted and they go on under my porch to dry. A year or so later they get cut into slabs and blocks. Never thought of actually trying to make spalting happen on purpose!

Good for you that you live in a temperated rainforest, but I live in Norway and need to do this in my apartment. so I think your thoughtless argument is hilarious..

 

[Cushing H.]

Good for you that you live in a temperated rainforest, but I live in Norway and need to do this in my apartment. so I think your thoughtless argument is hilarious..

Erik Sean - I don’t read Randy as offering an argument or being thoughtless - rather he was just musing that he had taken for granted what occurs around him outside. If an argument at all ... actually one for you for trying it inside when the outside does not do it for you ...

 

[Cushing H.]

Oh ... another thought from my previous cooking explorations ... I think fungus does need air to grow ... so sealing up tightly in plastic might not be a good idea (tempeh is incubated with a fungus, and is loosely wrapped in banana leaves, or put in plastic bags with a bunch of holes punched in them

 

[Hengelo_77]

Good for you that you live in a temperated rainforest, but I live in Norway and need to do this in my apartment. so I think your thoughtless argument is hilarious..

No personal experience but I've read that wet and dirty fallen, decaying leafs from the ground are a good start to get fungus in wood.
So now is the right time.

 

[Randydb]

Good for you that you live in a temperated rainforest, but I live in Norway and need to do this in my apartment. so I think your thoughtless argument is hilarious..

Hey, I want to apologize if you thought I was making fun of you. I didn't mean to come off that way at all. I thought it was funny that I had never thought of being able to do that. I wasn't laughing at you. My apologies.

 

[Eriksen]

Hey, I want to apologize if you thought I was making fun of you. I didn't mean to come off that way at all. I thought it was funny that I had never thought of being able to do that. I wasn't laughing at you. My apologies.

Ok. Sorry for misunderstanding.

 

[kdnolin]

This reminds me, i started a spalting experiment in the spring. i put some birch and oak in a large rubbermaid tub with some bark and rotten pieces of birch and a couple inches of water in it, then forgot about it. I'll check on it this weekend to see if anything has happened.

 

[Eriksen]

This reminds me, i started a spalting experiment in the spring. i put some birch and oak in a large rubbermaid tub with some bark and rotten pieces of birch and a couple inches of water in it, then forgot about it. I'll check on it this weekend to see if anything has happened.

I think you have to look at it regularly, because if it was airtight, it may be rotten and if not, the water may have evaporated. But please come back in this thread and tell us the result..

 

[kdnolin]

Looks like it’s working, most of it is just black mould, but some is spalting. Still wet inside, I’m going to leave it in the garage for winter. It’s not heated, so growth is going to slow down quite a bit as it will get below freezing.

Seeing all the mould makes me wonder if you that in an apartment?

 

[Randydb]

View attachment 1442646
Looks like it’s working, most of it is just black mould, but some is spalting. Still wet inside, I’m going to leave it in the garage for winter. It’s not heated, so growth is going to slow down quite a bit as it will get below freezing.

Seeing all the mould makes me wonder if you that in an apartment?

How big did you cut those blocks kdnolin?
My experience with spalted wood on the wet coast here is that the outer inch or two of the log is punky and mushy but a couple inches in I get beautiful fairly solid wood that is beautifully spalted.
So I guess I am asking because I wonder if you are going to lose some of the outer parts of your blocks.

 

[kdnolin]

These are some 4x4s 8’ long originally, that I had kicking around. They seem to be fairly solid yet. The pieces that are spalting appear to be from the same board. I will have to watch more closely so it doesn’t get away on me.

 

[Eriksen]

View attachment 1442646
Looks like it’s working, most of it is just black mould, but some is spalting. Still wet inside, I’m going to leave it in the garage for winter. It’s not heated, so growth is going to slow down quite a bit as it will get below freezing.

Seeing all the mould makes me wonder if you that in an apartment?

I have it in my bathroom and I open the plastic regularly in order to get more oxygen inside. Was it a bad odour when you opened it?

 

[kdnolin]

I am allergic to pollen, mould and several other things. It has a musty smell and I didn’t poke around in there too long, but I got a slight reaction to it. I wouldn’t keep it in my house.