Walnut inlaid into spalted maple

[Lee Campbell]

Hi, new here (fairly new to woodworking too), and I have a couple questions. This forum is busy, lots of knowledge to absorb.

I'm about to start a sign, simple carved lettering for a house front. I have some ambrosia maple (wormy maple), which is spalted with grey streaks through it. I'm going to laminate it, when I'm done it'll be about 18"x30"x1".

I'd like to inlay some walnut for a border around the edge, but I don't know about laying the walnut grain perpendicular to the maple grain for the 18" sides, is it generally done like that or will expansion cause trouble? I'll be using epoxy, probably want the walnut 3/8" wide. The maple is fairly dry and it'll have another month sitting indoors, stickered and stacked with some weight on it. I assume the moisture in the walnut isn't so critical since there's hardly any width across the grain.

Another thing I was wondering is what species maple I have? I dont' know much about maple, this stuff has a pretty light and understated figure. Does "ambrosia maple" encompass more than one species? My understanding is that this wood is fairly common.

Thanks!

[Pete Brown]

Is the wood actually spalted (black lines running through it), or does it have the worm/ghost in it like you see in my photos here and here.

Wormy maple is usually but not always soft maple, and often tiger maple at that. The streaking is caused by the tree protecting itself from the insect (ambrosia beetle, IIRC)

Pete

[Lee Campbell]

Yep, it's identical to what you have in the blog, worm holes and all. From what I know the ambrosia beetles introduce a fungus (which they feed on), and this works it's way along the grain causing the spalted streaks.

Have you stained your cabinets or any other ambrosia maple yet? I'd like to stain it in a way that'll keep it light but minimize contrast, so that the letters will have the contrast (which I want to spray with a dark pigment).

I'm thinking of a low VOC waterbased polyurethane clear too, it'll be outdoors.

[Pete Brown]

I didn't stain the wood at all. I used a super-blond dewaxed shellac topped by several coats of a water-based poly. I wanted the colors to come through. This kitchen is starting to look pretty wild

Here's a shot of the cabinet without the doors installed. You can see the tiger, but I kept the rails and stiles pretty plain.

I hope to post more photos soon.

I'm not sure about the fungus, as that isn't what I understood. That's also the reason it is different from spalting (which does involve a fungus)

Pete

[Pete Brown]

I just looked it up, and it appears that a fungus does cause the staining (despite what the folks at the hardwood dealer told me). Interesting. It's a good thing I seal it well

Pete

[Lee Campbell]

Nice job. I might finish this sign in the same way, I suppose the shellac warms it up a bit. Here's some good basic info on the beetle in question:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_beetles

[Greg Cole]

Ambrosia is the name of the beetle that makes the holes in the lumber. The unique colors around the holes are from bacteria and the tree's immune system fighting the beetle and the open hole to the ambient environment. Some seem to think there is an Ambrosia species of tree or that it is a variant of a species.
Spalting is from fungus and only occurs after a tree has died. Spalting can range from black line to wild colors in reds-oranges-browns, yellows etc....
The 2 are aften found on the same timbers/logs, but have 2 different cources of coloration.
Another nice or uniquie type of sugar maple I've encountered is old logs that have been "tapped" for extracting sap to make maple syrup. The man made holes and the removal of sap cause mineral deposits, allow bugs and bacteria from the open air in... also the knots around the old holes make for some unique grain patterns amongst the colors. An uncle of mine in Vermont makes about 3,000 gallons of syrup a year and manages to collect alot of the "figured" sugar maple simply from harvesting old "dried" up sugar maples to make room for the younger trees to flourish in stands of sugar maple.

[Pete Brown]

Nice job. I might finish this sign in the same way, I suppose the shellac warms it up a bit. Here's some good basic info on the beetle in question:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_beetles

Thanks Lee

The shellac is just Zinsser Seal Coat. That stuff is truly wonderful. I thinned it and used it to seal my oak newel posts and railings before staining those and it really made the ugly (IMHO) oak grain patterns even out a lot.

On the cabinets, my wife didn't want much/any darkening, but I think a dewaxed shellac with just a hint more red/brown would look even nicer. It has to be dewaxed if you want to topcoat it with a water-based poly. I use General Finishes high performance poly (which has had excellent reviews) and I couldn't ask for a nicer clear topcoat. I didn't want any yellowing at all, so I skipped using BLO. Some BLO would make the grain pop more if you put it on before any shellac.

I did 2-3 coats of shellac, sanded to 350-400 in between, followed by 2-4 coats of topcoat and then knocked it down with fine scotch bright to cut down on some of the shine. Cabinets get some real abuse. For most other furniture, you could skip the poly and just leave the shellac as the top coat.

Pete

[Lee Campbell]

I have some orange shellac flakes, I'm not sure if it's dewaxed though. I didn't know it was incompatible with water-based poly. In any case I plan on doing a test panel so I think I'll be allright. Thanks for your help.

Greg: You're saying Ambrosia Maple isn't considered spalted? Is that to differentiate spalting produced by these beetles and "regular" spalted maple that occurs without the beetles? I'm pretty sure it's not bacteria that produces the Ambrosia Maple pattern, I could be wrong but that would mean the dozen sources I've read are also wrong. Or maybe I misunderstood them.

[Pete Brown]

I have some orange shellac flakes, I'm not sure if it's dewaxed though. I didn't know it was incompatible with water-based poly. In any case I plan on doing a test panel so I think I'll be allright. Thanks for your help.

It is almost certainly not dewaxed. I believe you can put some of the dewaxed shellac (sealcoat) over the regular shellac and before the topcoat. Don't try to put the topcoat on over the regular shellac. It may work at first, but the wax will cause the finish to come off over time, if not immediately.

Greg: You're saying Ambrosia Maple isn't considered spalted? Is that to differentiate spalting produced by these beetles and "regular" spalted maple that occurs without the beetles? I'm pretty sure it's not bacteria that produces the Ambrosia Maple pattern, I could be wrong but that would mean the dozen sources I've read are also wrong. Or maybe I misunderstood them.

Spalted Maple is maple that has had some rot after it was felled. The effect is more veins of dark spalting, as opposed to what you see with the ambrosia/wormy/ghost maple. The worm scarring is not called spalt.

Typically, ambrosia maple is not called spalted maple unless it also has the spalt in it. My ambrosia maple had some spalt on the ends of some boards, but it was also pretty punky/weak there on those boards, so I cut the ends off.

Pete

[Lee Campbell]

Thanks for the heads up on the shellac! Also for clearing my confusion over the spalted vs wormy maple.

[Rob Amadon]

Lee,
Putting a coat of dewaxed shellac over waxy shellac will not seal in the wax. Since shellac is an evaporative finish that fully burns into the layer beneath it it will mix the two shellacs on the wood just as thoroughly as if you had mixed the two in a jar before you applied them.

Pete is right in guessing that it isn't dewaxed. Orange shellac is available as a dewaxed shellac http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/htdocs/shellac3.htm (check out the dewaxed bona shellac just below the dewaxed orange, looks like cool stuff), but the majority of orange shellac isn't dewaxed.

Rob