Spalting own wood?

I helped my dad cut up a wind blown Sugar Maple a few years ago. Last summer I saw the cut off stump at the edge of the field and went to saw it up for fire wood. Saw all the spalting inside. It is now sitting in my shop drying to be blocked and stabilized. This wood spalted on it's own. Their property is not wet and the spalting was not planned. I guess it was cut at the right time just like Karl said above.
 
How do you handle all that heat? ;)

My Dad always used to say, "It's been up in the single digits three days in a row now. We keep hoping and praying this heat wave will come to an end."


Andy Johnston said:
^ Well thats not good news. The seasons in Michigan are Summer, almost winter, winter, and almost not winter :p
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Would cutting the tree into sections before letting it sit help, or just cut the tree, turn off the chainsaw, and go home?
 
I got a bunch of boards that we dug up in the corner of Bill Moran's shop. It was covered with ashes and dirt. The wood was curly maple that had spalted. I had the wood stabilized and was outstanding.
Out behind the shop were several big trunk sections of maple that he was trying to spalt. The swamp ate them.

I tried to spalt some wood a while back, but it rotted and didn't spalt. My friend, Don, had his woodpile or persimmon for his BBQ shop smoker, and when we were cutting up some on the bottom, we found lovely spalt. We had it stabilized.
 
I just discovered that a lady got a phd from Michigan Tech, so just a hour away from me, dealing with the fungi that spalt wood. Unfortunately she is now a professor in Oregon but she has published a lot of information on it and I am swamped with reading now. I think what I will do is some experiments as my father just informed me a birch fell on our property this winter. I will cut up sections of the tree and let them lay in the woods for a year and see what results I can get, I will leave a section of trunk in tact and see what results I can get from that, and then I will take sections of trunk and find fungus that cause zone lines (the black lines in the wood) and run multiple experiments with sections of that. From what I have read of her research you should be able to get good spalting in just 12 weeks in a controlled environment. I will post my results and try to make a informative thread of it. Thanks again for all the info guys.
 
As for cutting the log into smaller pieces, you will develop cracks on the end grain so there will be some wood loss. You would usually cover the end grain with a wax as soon as you cut the log to prevent cracks but if you are trying for spalt I dont think waxing the endgrain will be the thing to do.
You do realize the log will probably have bugs in it after laying on the ground for a while right .... you can kill the bugs with heat though. If you build a heat box to kill the bugs the electrical box needs to be metal and not plastic. guess how I know lol
 
I have been doing it for years. I have tried many different methods but the one I find easiest is to lay the pieces one on top of the other directly on the ground and cover with a tarp but not so tight that air can't get to it but keeps the sun light out. Spray down with a hose once every two days in the spring or fall and everyday in the summer.
Check it every time you water and see if the mold/fungus is growing. I try to mix different types of wood because some funguses and molds like certain types of wood better than others from what I have found. By putting them in the same pile it promotes cross contamination and you will be able to get results you wouldn't if it was just one type of wood. At least thats what I have found. I'm sure some one else on here can explain the science or tell me I'm full of it.
After about two months I cut a few to see the depth. Typically I have found that a good two to three months will yield good results. You just have to make sure that you do not totally drench the wood. You just want to wet it. If drenched you will loose your wood pretty quickly. I believe they call it getting punky. It's where the wood becomes soft and spongy.
I stick a knife blade into each piece every week to check the hardness of the wood. If the blade pushes in you have most likely lost most of the wood and it's time to start over.
Once your ready to harvest the wood. Cut it to the lengths/dimesions you want and dry it. I use a make shift cabinet with a incandescent light bulb and a small fan inside. You want to use only air for the first two weeks and check the wood daily to check for moisture content and for cracking (don't dry to quickly if need be let it sit for a week before using the fan). I then turn the lamp on together with the fan for another week or until completely dry (again check daily to make sure it's not getting to dry to quick or it will crack, I paint the open ends so the wood dryes evenly). Once dry I dye the wood if I'm wanting color and then either stablize it yourself or send it off to be. Note: IMHO it absolutely needs to be stabilized.
It's pretty easy.
 
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