Spalted wood

S

skillgannon

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Apr 27, 2009
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I started splitting some cherry from a tree in my back yard. It's looking pretty nice. Some was higher up the tree and was starting to decay. I had set some of the crotch wood and more interesting wood aside though it spent the summer outside. Is there a way to predict when it starts to look good?

Also I have a source for walnut that was left outside. Does walnut spalt?
 
Almost all wood will spalt given the right conditions. Walnut is not very good for spalting though, as the wood is dark, so spalting doesnt show up well, and because it is more prone to rot than spalt.

Spalting is really quite a random process. There are ways to increase the rate of spalt "drill small holes in the wood, hammer in a piece of wood cut from another spalted piece, keep them wet" but yeah, not a super predictable process
 
I was able to get some spalting in walnut sapwood but never the dark heartwood. For me it was just a guessing game for when to saw it up.
Darkness ,moisture and warmth.
 
Mark @ Burl Source did a post several years ago about forcing spalting by adding different bacteria and wrapping in plastic to hold the moisture up.
 
Jesse Latham said:
Mark @ Burl Source did a post several years ago about forcing spalting by adding different bacteria and wrapping in plastic to hold the moisture up.
Click to expand...
I tried different stuff with Buckeye with cornmeal and yogurt. Worked out better just stacking the slabs without spacers in between and then covered with a tarp and let it do its own thing. I wrapped madrone burl with plastic pallet wrap when fresh cut and let that sit a few years. That kept the wood from cracking and developed some unusual colors but no blackline.
 
Keep in mind that a wet log wrapped in plastic is a mighty inviting home for snakes
 
When I first started dating my wife 30 years ago we went into the toy store in the mall , made it to the back of the store and turned around to go out and she sees a stuffed 20' long snake hanging up and because she had to go by the snake on the way out I struggled to get her to leave. :eek:
A few years ago in the height of my spalting experiments I killed something like 2 dozen snakes in my yard in a summer. My experiments came to an end. This year I only killed a couple.. back to normal
 
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