Spalted maple

[Rick Peek]

O/k,so I happened to land about 60 b/f of 5/4 rough cut
spalted maple. When I saw it,I thought it would be perfect
for a bar top I'm building for my (very dry) walk out basment.
Having never worked with it before,I started to search SMC
for finishing ideas. This is when I found out the spores can be
dangerous when cutting & planeing.
Well, I got ready to plane & joint some. I told my son to go in
the house ( my garage is my shop),put on my resperator,hooked
up my H/F dust collector & cut some raised panels for a vanity
I'm building. My son tells my wife and she flipped out!
My question are, how dangerous is this wood to work with?
Would it be safe for a bar top? I really want to use it,its beautiful.
I only paid $125 for the lot of it!

[Mike Parzych]

Sheesh....not that dangerous. I daresay you're exposed to more dangerous microbes by touching the faucet handle in a public restroom....seriously.

Different people have different sensetivities to foreign materials. I for one have never had any sort of reaction working with any species of wood, although I know there are many people that do react allergically. I wouldn't let that possibility deter me in this case.

Seems to me that in my lifetime the world has gotten hyper-vigilant about many things. As a kid I recall playing with loose mercury, melting/molding lead I'd found to make fishing sinkers, and the attic was filled with vermiculite.

[Dick Strauss]

Rick,
It sounds like you are taking the right precautions. I turn it/sand it regularly with little protection and haven't had any problems. I don't think it is much more dangerous than normal sawdust. I would think that sanding the wood might be slightly worse than digging in the garden and inhaling some dust given the spalting color comes from fungus/bacteria usually found in the dirt.

[Ted Jay]

O/k,so I happened to land about 60 b/f of 5/4 rough cut
spalted maple. When I saw it,I thought it would be perfect
for a bar top I'm building for my (very dry) walk out basment.
Having never worked with it before,I started to search SMC
for finishing ideas. This is when I found out the spores can be
dangerous when cutting & planeing.
Well, I got ready to plane & joint some. I told my son to go in
the house ( my garage is my shop),put on my resperator,hooked
up my H/F dust collector & cut some raised panels for a vanity
I'm building. My son tells my wife and she flipped out!
My question are, how dangerous is this wood to work with?
Would it be safe for a bar top? I really want to use it,its beautiful.
I only paid $125 for the lot of it!

WAIT.... DON'T BELIEVE ANY OF THESE GENTLEMEN. What you are doing is very dangerous. I am a Certified Wood Disposal Specialist. I recommend that you ship the aforementioned Contaminated Wood to me, so I can dispose of it properly... for health reasons of course....


So.... where did ya happen to "aquire" this, ahem, "contaminated wood"?

[Jim Becker]

Care should be taken when working with any wood relative to dust and that is what your son and spouse should understand. With spalted material, one must take consistent care as the dormant fungus/spoors could reactivate in the nice, warm, moist environment called your lungs. Seriously.

[Dan Forman]

The wood itself is not considered a health risk, it's the fungal spores released with the dust when it is being worked that you have to be careful with.

Dan

[Mike Parzych]

Rick -

In all fairness, I must clear something up regarding this statement I made yesterday:

As a kid I recall playing with loose mercury, melting/molding lead I'd found to make fishing sinkers, and the attic was filled with vermiculite.

I don't know if my childhood exposures have anything to do with the extra arm I have growing out of my forehead, but it's so handy I don't complain much about it.

But the other people are correct concerning the dust. Once it's sealed with whatever finish it's harmless.

[Chris Barton]

Sadly, the risk of fungal spore exposure has been greatly over-hyped for the past few years. In fact, most of us are completely insensitive to the spores (unless you have some rare autoimmune disease). We are all exposed to huge amounts of fungal spores on a daily basis and don't even know it. Spalted wood represents virtually no risk to the average woodworker.

[Mark Pruitt]

Last year I went through a thoracotomy/decortication of my right lung due to a pleural effusion caused by God-knows-what. (We never did figure out the cause.) It taught me something about how valuable my lungs are and made me acutely aware of how I had taken them for granted. Anytime any of you guys get to talking about respiratory protection you get my attention in a big way.

I haven't worked with spalted maple but the one observation I do recall is from seeing Richard Raffan turn a spatula from spalted maple in one of his videos. The thing literally flys apart while spinning on the lathe. Makes you think.

Mark

[Dan Racette]

I think it is great that you are using a respirator. spores or no spores one of the top 100 cancer causing agents as reported by our gov't is wood dust. The spores just add a wrinkle. In my case, I am highly allergic. The punky wood is what gets me, and you can get the tiniest of streaks every once in a while and my eyes puff up, throat itches, start sneezing and creating lovely fluids from my eyes nose and mouth! I look like some neaderthal (the ones in the museums not the ones with handplanes.).

I'd say your slight overprotection can't hurt.

I have to move to a full face, because it actually enters through my eyes and my "hi dust goggles" aren't cutting it. There goes another $250!

d

[Frank Fusco]

A good mask should be fine, I use a Dust Bee Gone. But, for use, you will need to seal that wood with something like Min Wax wood hardener. It should be beautiful when done.

[Rick Peek]

Thanks for all the replies. I figured that the exposure danger
was slightly over blown. That said I will take every precautiom
when working with it.
The raised panels in the picture is finsihed with tongue oil.
Does it need to be sealed with shellac or poly? Also on the bar
top, I will be attaching it to a 3/4 ply base. What should I seal the
bottom side with?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

All Fungi that grow on wood are edible.
That said you wouldn't want to eat most of them as they are mostly woody tough and don't taste good.
There are some antler and fern fungi that grow on wood that are delicious.

ERGO: I'd not worry about the dust from spalted wood.
What you might want to consider is the continuation of growth in unkilned lumber. No amount of drying will kill the spores. They can survive 20 years. Many fungi can continue to thrive in very arid conditions.

[Ted Jay]

All Fungi that grow on wood are edible.
That said you wouldn't want to eat most of them as they are mostly woody tough and don't taste good.
There are some antler and fern fungi that grow on wood that are delicious.

ERGO: I'd not worry about the dust from spalted wood.
What you might want to consider is the continuation of growth in unkilned lumber. No amount of drying will kill the spores. They can survive 20 years. Many fungi can continue to thrive in very arid conditions.

Wouldn't kiln drying kill all the spores in the wood?

[Dan Forman]

Sadly, the risk of fungal spore exposure has been greatly over-hyped for the past few years. In fact, most of us are completely insensitive to the spores (unless you have some rare autoimmune disease). We are all exposed to huge amounts of fungal spores on a daily basis and don't even know it. Spalted wood represents virtually no risk to the average woodworker.

Chris---I've always wondered about this myself, since wood and lung tissue are quite different mediums for growth. I have read in at least one woodworking book that the spores present in spalted wood are carcinogenic. If true, that would be a different sort of reaction than that of an allergen. Can you document the claim that spalted wood dust is no more harmful than normal wood dust with any biological data? Not trying to be confrontive, just curious, because I am a great fan of spalted wood and it would ease my mind some if I knew this to be true.

Can anyone else present any documented science on this question, one way or the other? Inquiring minds want to know!

Dan