# Question about Spalded Maple



## tewitt1949 (Nov 26, 2013)

Not sure if there is a better place to ask this question, if there is let me know.

I have wood lathe that I've had for years and ocascasionally I will play with it. This fall I was cutting some soft maple and just for the heck of it I keep a couple pieces of it. It had been down for some time and pretty much dried out.

Anyways I got around to try making a bowl out of it and I was really surprised how pretty it was. It turned out to be spalded maple. Apparently I caught it at just the right time because it wasn't punky at all, turned great.

My question. How long does a tree half to be on the ground before the spalding appears? I'm thinking if it is on the ground too long it will start rotting. I don't know how long it takes to get to that point either. 

I just wished I hadn't split and burned the remaining log.


----------



## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

FYI, it's "spalt" not "spald"

Spalting seems to be pretty tricky. It can be, and sometime is, induced deliberately but I can't give you any specific answer on your question. 

There's a wood scientist named Dr. Sarah Robinson at Oregon State who as far as I am aware is the leading authority on spalting. Google her. I'm pretty sure she has a web site that talks about spalting.


----------



## ETWW (Mar 27, 2011)

The time required for wood to spalt varies with the species. Lighter-colored wood generally spalts sooner than darker wood but it usually takes around 1 1/2 years on average.

When I think the log is close to being spalted, I'll cut a cookie off the end and inspect it. With some logs, like Hackberry (and I suspect Maple) the interim between attractive spalting and punky wood can be very short.

You can also spalt individual boards by placing them in a shallow tray along with the desired fungal spores and covered with vermiculite which is kept damp. Different fungi produce different spalting patterns.

As Phinds wrote, check out Seri Robinson's site for all you ever wanted to know about spalted wood. She has made a career of it and will give you factual, scientific answers while also dispelling many of the myths that get perpetrated on internet forums.


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*spalting is great!*



tewitt1949 said:


> My question. How long does a tree half to be on the ground before the spalding appears? I'm thinking if it is on the ground too long it will start rotting. I don't know how long it takes to get to that point either.


My information is that a standing dead tree can and will spalt, especially Maple. If it lays on the ground too long...it will soon rot and get punky, which is of no use for woodworking. I don't know the time frame, but you can examine the surface of the tree with the bark removed, for the telltale black lines indicating spalt.

good info:
http://www.appalachianartisanwoodco.com/howtospaltwood.html

I used some here:


----------



## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

*My information is that a standing dead tree can and will spalt, especially Maple.

*Here is some evidence proving that. This is a stump of a red maple I cut down three days ago. It had been progressively dying for about 5 years, but still had a couple of branches that were still alive. You can kind of see from my boots how large the tree is. 

It's probably not worth having anyone come out to slab it, so I'll just cut it into manageable pieces and stack it in my machine shed to play with at a later date - maybe firewood, maybe I'll cut some up for small projects.


----------



## DST (Jan 10, 2011)

phinds said:


> FYI, it's "spalt" not "spald" Spalting seems to be pretty tricky. It can be, and sometime is, induced deliberately but I can't give you any specific answer on your question. There's a wood scientist named Dr. Sarah Robinson at Oregon State who as far as I am aware is the leading authority on spalting. Google her. I'm pretty sure she has a web site that talks about spalting.


I do believe she is presenting at our local turning club this month.


----------



## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

DST said:


> I do believe she is presenting at our local turning club this month.


Hey, lucky you. That's very cool. She is extremely knowledgeable. Let us know how that goes.


----------

