Drying Wet Spalted Rough-turned Blanks

[Allan Wright]

I got some wood from my friend's woodpile. The pile was sitting on wet earth near a stream under shade trees. I've rough turned two bowl blanks of spalted maple. The wood was wet, not green, but seasoned, wet, in the process of rotting/spalting. I'm wondering if there's anything special about drying these blanks vs. green wood? I'm trying the wrap with plastic trick and for good measure still putting them in a paper bag with shavings.

Thoughts?

[daryl moses]

Sounds like you've taken all the right steps. From your description sounds like they are really wet so it is going to take quite awhile to dry though.
A friend of mine gave me a large Sycamore log that had died and fallen down, even though it had been dead for over a year it was still very wet, I did as you did and rough turned them, wrapped in plastic and put on a wire rack for air circulation. I finish turned two of them after a couple of months and got a slight crack in both. I am not the most patient person and should of given them more time. I still have three rough outs from the same log and they are still too wet to finish. I'm trying to be more patient with them.
In my experience after a month or so I remove the shavings, take them out of the bag and just leave the plastic on. Seems they never dry otherwise.

[Mark Greenbaum]

I would not wrap in plastic - it will cause mold to develop. Even though spalting is a form of mold, green surface mold would need bleaching off to keep it from becoming airborne when you turn the blank to a finished bowl. I did the plastic bag routine with a hackberry, and accidentally forgot about it for about 6 months. Green mold everywhere on it. The whit wood turned to a sullen grey. But I had to spray with bleach to kill the mold and wipe it off. I would place the blank in a paper bag with dry wood shavings, and check it every week or so, weighing before and until it stops losing weight. Then turn the finished bowl.

[Reed Gray]

Spaulting is a fungus, which is a stage of turning nice wood into compost. If you store and try to dry it in a plastic bag, and wet shavings, the decomposition is going to continue. I would want it in open air, and seal the entire piece. You could try the Christian Burshard technique where you put it in a paper bag, then put that in a plastic bag. You will need to change out the paper bag every day. After the paper bag dries out, then you can use it again. This method will dry the wood slowly.

robo hippy

[Allan Wright]

Thanks guys. I'll remove the plastic. I don't want to deal with mold.

[Ron Rutter]

Allan. Why not just turn to a finished bowl? I have turned a lot of wet spaulted maple & not had a splitting problem. However it was from a huge tree in which the grain was not really defined. Didn't warp either.

[Olaf Vogel]

Most of the spalted (maple) I've turned was actually pretty easy to dry.
It warped a lot but split less than average.

I have tried the garbage bag routine to encourage the spalting.
Turned thin first, Anchor sealed it, stuffed it full of shaving then bagged it for a few months.
Cut like butter after than. The colors have a lot of grey in now. Looks great.

Just depends on what you want to get.

[Thomas Canfield]

Another method is to pack in shavings in a plastic bag, and turn the bag inside out every 2 days. You can also add some dry shavings when turning bag and that will remove moisture in a control rate. The inside of the bag will be wet at first and later dry. Switch to a paper bag when the moisture has slowed down, but leave some shavings to prevent contact with the bag surface.

[robert baccus]

I'm reading a lot of witch craft here. Maximum effort does not always produce maximum results. Just try a coat of endsealer(wax). It can be thinned with water if you think your drying is partly finished. Crotchy old cajun

[Allan Wright]

These pieces are pretty close to gone and in full process of decomposition. When I rough turned them they smelled strongly of a urine-like smell. I could probably get them to a finished state, but since they're so soft I'm getting a lot of tear out even with sheer scrapes and finish cuts. I was hoping drying the wood would allow it to firm up some making finish cutting (and sanding) a lot easier.

[robert baccus]

Soft punky wood seldom warps or cracks. If good enough to save I would dry it in the open and perhaps try hardening it after drying and roughing out. Needs to be pretty for that much effort but some is.

[Olaf Vogel]

These pieces are pretty close to gone and in full process of decomposition. When I rough turned them they smelled strongly of a urine-like smell. I could probably get them to a finished state, but since they're so soft I'm getting a lot of tear out even with sheer scrapes and finish cuts. I was hoping drying the wood would allow it to firm up some making finish cutting (and sanding) a lot easier.

With really punky pieces, I've poured Minwax wood Gardner on. It hardens up the soft stuff nicely and allows you to actually cut the stuff.