Spalted wood, more about

[Ralph Lindberg]

If you read her blogs or book you will find she is not a big fan of the random "put your log on the ground" theory of spalting.
She does hers in sealed plastic tubs, inside. To the point where she had to get "her own place" as her husband didn't want spatting tubs in their apartment. She she got a small apartment just for her work.
Of course today she runs her spalting lab there at OSU.
She used to sell starter fungus to people, exact fungus's for exact results (zone lines, colors, etc)
I know her tub work allowed her to spalt wood in weeks vrs months (controlled environment and all)
She has also developed method to remove the colors some fungus use to "dye" wood, as this natural dye is quite "fast" (ie doesn't fad easily)

[Eugene Dixon]

I've got oak in my garage that has spalted waiting for me to turn it. I harvested it from trees as they were cut down. Slab it withing 2-3 days and sealed the ends with paraffin and candle wax. Stored in my garage for ~3 mos and between the bark beetles and the humidity in NC, I've gotten some nice spalting. Gargage door is kept shut most of the time. Minimal amount of direct sunlight into garage and none onto the wood pile in the garage. Garage houses a car and a truck every night.

I'd show a picture but it keeps failing to upload.

[Reed Gray]

Spalting needs moisture. The process takes a month to a month and a half. Vernon Liebrand, a north Washington turner takes Monkey Puzzle tree sections, puts them on the ground, end grain down, and they are done in a month. Of course, up where he lives, mold grows even in the dry season.

The extraction of die pigments had been around for hundreds of years. Sari mentioned that there were pieces of furniture from the 1400's where the color was still good as new. At the Holiday Market here in town that I used to do, there was a fabric artist who was using dyes taken from spalting.

robo hippy

[John K Jordan]

...I found that the science experts (and spalting fanatics) have written a book:
https://www.amazon.com/Spalted-Wood-.../dp/0764350382
I've ordered a copy, will report my impressions later.

I got the book this morning. Very nice! Hard bound (288 pages), packed with excellent photos, history, stories, and science. A lot of pictures of turnings, furniture, and ancient intarsia. Until I looked through it I didn't appreciate how much people have relied on spalted wood for color over the last 500 years or so.

The book describes the black "zone" lines we all love as actually lines of defense created by fungi as walls of protection against competing fungi. The actual spalting is between the zone lines and often colored distinctively.

I think this book would be a welcome addition to the wood and shop libraries of many of us. The YouTube generation may not get as much out of it since it has actual printing on actual paper. [gasp!]

JKJ