Spalted hard maple

[Ray Turney]

I've had some hard maple sawn into rough lumber and about two thirds is spalted. My question is, I know it's a fungus in the wood but does sawing it kill the fungus or does it keep working?

[Carl Beckett]

Hi Ray,

I have made a number of things from spalted wood (maple, and beech). Similar to you, I didn't seek it out specifically but it found me......

Most fungus needs moisture, and mold spores don't do well below about 40% rH

So I just finished it to seal it all up, and haven't noticed any problems in terms of additional growth/deterioration

Somewhere here you can find some pics of a couple different dressers I made with it.

[Andrew Gibson]

From my experience with a friend that specalizes in spalted wood, the spalting takes place before the log is cut, once the wood is cut, stacked, and stickered for drying, the fungus dies and the spalting stops... now if you put it back out in your compost pile, the spalting will continue.