Spectacularly Spalted H/F & I Blew It.

[Thomas Canfield]

Had no intention of attempting to recover this piece, but after these comments I feel shamed into doing it. Looking forward to the challenge now.

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The challenge is always good for the next one. That is a nice piece and worth some recovery work. I had a punky China Berry crotch that lost its bottom, broke the glue block I added, and then allowed me to add a walnut bottom to make a nice 15" D x 5"H footed piece that LOML has in a prominent place. Get ready to display your recovery.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Bill, I am in agreement with the others, Too nice to toss. I am curious about the spalting process though. Was this wood still wet when you started, and what fertilizer did you use? Thanks

I have been experimenting with spalting for the last two years and wrote about it in my article in the April, 2013 issue of "Woodturning Design" titled "Translucent Norfolk Island Pine." For this piece I cut the river birch in two just to make sure I had a very green area to place on the ground though the piece was pretty green. Cleared off some mulch and put the freshly cut ends on the ground on top of some Miracle Grow shake and feed plant food. Added more plant food to the top of it, put some paper towels on top of that to hold moisture and to keep the sun off. Then covered it all with a thick plastic sheet with the intention of creating a contained atmosphere around the wood where the evaporation from the ground would go to the plastic sheet, come back down to the paper towel and keep the wood moist. It worked very well and was fun too. Kind of like a H.S. science project.

[Wade Lippman]

I have ruined too many by chickening out and not making them thin enough. It is a shame it is such a nice piece of wood, but ruining one once in a while by making it too thin is just the way it goes. Don't let it bother you.

[Vince Welch]

Hi Bill,
With all the talk about woodturning protection and people getting hurt if all you did was just tore up the peice it might have been a good day after all... Al least you are able to tell us about the wood being tore up and not you getting tore up...lol. ANd you understand how to spalt another peice! V
P.S. I am not saying it was not a nice peice...lol

[Bob Rotche]

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. It's just wood and it really does grow on trees. This happens to be an especially gorgeous piece and was well on its way to being a real winner. My approach would be to chuck it in the burn pile and move on. Consider it a learning experience. "Saves" are rarely ever as nice as what the original would have been. There's so much nice wood out there and so little time to turn it that I hate waste time and end up disappointed with the result. You now have the formula for spalting your own so supply should not be a problem. You practiced a form that you like and the next one will likely be even better. Look to the future and forget about "what could have been".

[David C. Roseman]

Bob's point is well taken, but another vote here for a save, Bill! It looks like it may be very difficult to remount it, tho. Maybe hold it bottom down on a belt sander to sand off the jagged perimeter of the blow-out, then separately turn a contrasting or even matching base to seat it in?

David

[john taliaferro]

I use polycrill from packard when the piece is iffe mixed with water it dries fast hr or two and adds stiffness to soft wood that will help save it sometimes . Bracelet for Bigfoot ?

[Ray Bell]

Thanks for the reply Bill, I would love to read this article. Is it available online? So it sounds like instead of laying the pieces face down you stood them on end? also since this was only spalting for three months you were turning this green?

[Cody Colston]

Too bad about the vessel. The wood is spectacular. My experience with River Birch, though, is that it will spalt like that very quickly without doing anything more than keeping it in the shade. The trick is catching it at the right time when the spalting is gorgeous but not letting it go too far. There is a narrow window between optimum spalting and punky wood.

[BILL DONAHUE]

Thanks for the reply Bill, I would love to read this article. Is it available online? So it sounds like instead of laying the pieces face down you stood them on end? also since this was only spalting for three months you were turning this green?

I can no longer find the article online but the magazine can be purchased online. Spaulting though, is really easy to do and the fun part is experimenting with it. The technique I mentioned earlier will do the job.

[BILL DONAHUE]

I use polycrill from packard when the piece is iffe mixed with water it dries fast hr or two and adds stiffness to soft wood that will help save it sometimes . Bracelet for Bigfoot ?

John, I couldn't find polycrill in the Packard catalog. Does it have a more complete name? Thanks.