Is This Dry Rot?

[Pat Scott]

I started roughing out a 17" Silver Maple blank and this is what the surface looks like after a push cut - tear out and lots of white spots. Is this what dry rot is? The blank is sopping wet though, the tree was just cut down a few days ago.

Is there anything that I can do, or should do now? I thought about soaking the white spots in CA but they cover a large area and it would take a lot of CA. Part of me says if I do anything now it will be a waste of time because once the blank dries and distorts I'll have to recut it. Should I wait until the blank dries and then soak with CA?

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[John K Jordan]

I started roughing out a 17" Silver Maple blank and this is what the surface looks like after a push cut - tear out and lots of white spots. Is this what dry rot is? The blank is sopping wet though, the tree was just cut down a few days ago.

Is there anything that I can do, or should do now? I thought about soaking the white spots in CA but they cover a large area and it would take a lot of CA. Part of me says if I do anything now it will be a waste of time because once the blank dries and distorts I'll have to recut it. Should I wait until the blank dries and then soak with CA?

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Some say "dry rot" is just rot that dried out. Others discuss fungal action in mostly dry wood which over time can turn the wood darker. And make it quite weak.

Hard to tell from the pictures, especially without knowing the scale of the first two photos. I see some tearout and some small holes and some wandering paths that almost look like frass from insect damage. If you probe with a needle are the holes deep? Do they feel soft and punky, say when pressed with the fingernail? The whitish stuff might be from fungus but I haven't see any in sliver maple that looks quite like that. Is the white stuff loose such that it come out of the wood with a gentle wire brush or a needle point awl?

I'd probably toss it but you might try using CA now and then again during and after your final cuts when dry. Make a finishing cut, soak with CA, let it harden, make another finishing cut, repeat. I turned a bowl from spalted maple that was so far gone with soft, punky areas I used at least two bottles of CA to stabilize it after it was dry. In that case the color and figure were spectacular so it was worth it.

JKJ

[Dave Fritz]

I was curious about "dry rot" so I got out Understanding Wood by R. Bruce Hoadley. He basically states "dry rot" is simply fungi in it's dormant stage. When conditions change esp. moisture the fungus will become active again. Similar to the idea there's no such thing as cold, just the absence of heat. If you're interested this information is on page 36 of his book.

[Mike Nathal]

There is a type of spalting known as "white rot" that causes the light/dark pattern that I am seeing in your photo. I think it would look nice in a finished piece, but I personally only use such pieces for decorative items and not utility pieces. As true for all spalted wood, the fungus is still present and could possibly be re-activated with repeated washings, even in a bowl sealed with varnish or CA. Other options to heavy soaking with CA, you can try soaking with other things like shellac, lacquer based sanding sealer, ever water-base poly. Also, I have had good results by sanding the punky areas --- they sand quite easily and you can get a very smooth surface.

[John Keeton]

I am in Mike's camp - white rot. Happens often in soft maple and I have never been happy with the result, so my choice is to add it to the firewood pile.

[Melvin Feng]

If you want to save the piece, you can go ahead and rough it out, and then when it is dry and ready to be turned again, you can stabilize it with penetrating epoxy, which will be cheaper by volume than CA. A random thought I had was that you could even try an alcohol dye with the penetrating epoxy to see if you can color the rotted areas more to increase contrast for an interesting effect.

[Pat Scott]

I roughed out the bowl and used a whole bottle of Starbond Super Thin CA to cover and soak the inside and outside. The white rot (good to know what it is, thanks Mike and John) covered at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the bowl. I've turned bowls with this before and they're a pain with tearout, but I'm going to be stubborn and give it a try as this is a large 17.5" bowl with nice figure, meaning it has the potential to make me a lot of money! I'll sell it as a display bowl and not utility. Using CA now while the bowl is wet might be a waste of CA but I feel better doing it than not. I cored it and the cores had white rot too. Bummer.