# Spalting Wood



## JR Custom Calls (Mar 29, 2014)

Anyone here ever spalt wood? I had never even considered that you could spalt your own wood, except maybe cutting it down and purposely leaving it in the woods to begin rotting. Talking with my dad on the phone the other night, he told me that he had run across an article in a woodworking magazine that discussed spalting your own wood. Got me thinking how cool it would be to spalt some stuff that isn't commonly sold as spalted wood.

Here's the article, there are quite a few out there. https://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/spalt-your-own-lumber.aspx

Anyone ever done anything like this?


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## Tclem (Mar 29, 2014)

Always a discussion on that topic. Should be an article here somewhere


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## JR Custom Calls (Mar 29, 2014)

Seriously? I'm one of THOSE people? I swear I did a site search and couldn't find anything. Ugh.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Tclem (Mar 29, 2014)

I've cut some logs and stacked them under a tree and covered in leaves for a few months and wala spalted wood


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## DKMD (Mar 29, 2014)

I do recall a thread or two on the subject, but I don't have them saved. There are lots of folks on here who've done their own spalting... Mostly along the lines of what Tony suggested leaving logs to lay somewhere. Some species spalt better than others which is one reason that you see a lot if it available... Hackberry, birch, and maple are three of the more popular that I've seen, and I've had pretty good luck spalting my own silver maple by just leaving it on the ground in the shade.


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## Tclem (Mar 29, 2014)

Here is a bowl I turn Chinese tallow aka popcorn tree. I cut down and threw in the burn pile and let set for several months under the cover of leaves

Reactions: Like 5 | Way Cool 1


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## DKMD (Mar 29, 2014)

I thought if you left something on the ground in Mississippi for three months it would be covered in kudzu...

Nice bowl!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## daugher12 (Mar 29, 2014)

I cut several maple chunks to roughly the finished size of the blank I was wanting. I put them and some shavings from the jointer of some spalted wood in a heavy duty trash bag. I sprayed everything down with a mist of water and closed the bag being sure to leave some vent holes so air could get in to the bag. I would open the bag about once a month and spray it down so everything would stay wet. I left this in the garage for about three months and the maple spalted nicely. I did joint a board that had some nice spalt to begin with thinking that I would get that fungus in the shavings.


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## phinds (Mar 29, 2014)

JR Custom Calls said:


> Seriously? I'm one of THOSE people? I swear I did a site search and couldn't find anything. Ugh.


Do a forum search on Dr Sara Robinson (member name is something like doctorspalt. She is THE expert on spalting and has a web site about it. She's a wood scientist.


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