# A Hackberry Story (in pictures)



## trc65 (May 17, 2022)

On a recent thread, there was some discussion on spalting methods. Just thought I'd show what has been happening with a Hackberry bowl I rough turned 11 days ago. The tree was dropped Nov 2020 and the log this bowl was turned from has been sitting on the ground until I cut off the end and turned this bowl.

After turning the bowl was put in a double paper bag sitting in my basement at ~65° and 55% humidity. I've been checking on it daily to monitor for any developing cracks and started to take pictures 5 days after turning it.

5 days




9 days 





10 days



11 days 





12 days





Very interesting to watch this and see the dark and light colored fungi develop with the demarcation line. This piece has lost over 10% of it's original weight so far, therefore fungal growth may be nearing an end.

I'm under no illusions that the darkening goes much beyond the surface, but time will tell. When I re-turn this bowl I'll turn the inside first and remove a minimal amount of wood and hopefully retain some of the developing patterns.

Reactions: Like 8 | Way Cool 1 | Informative 2


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## 2feathers Creative Making (May 18, 2022)

How bout a pic of the outside? I wouldn't be surprised if the spalting is through and through. The spalted part was sapwood, likely in contact with the ground so fungi was inside the fiber when the bowl was roughed in.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## JerseyHighlander (May 18, 2022)

Very cool! That's going to be beautiful. 

When I need to really temper my drying process I sometimes wet a handful or two of the shavings and put them in with the bowl in the paper bag. You may be able to extend your spalting period that way.

Reactions: Like 1


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## DLJeffs (May 18, 2022)

Can you cut off another section of that log and this time do a time lapse video of the spalting? I've been watching a lot of Nature channel lately and am into time lapse.


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## trc65 (May 18, 2022)

I'll keep shooting pics and include some of the outside as well. Wasn't actually trying to induce spalting, this is just my normal drying process. 

I'm away for a couple of days, but it can't hurt to throw some damp shavings in with it. Right now it's sitting with wet bowls in bags on top and bottom of it.

Would love to do a time lapse, but really don't have the setup for that - other than what I'm doing now. Would be a really neat film. 

I'll keep shooting pics until it's dry and then when I do a final turn.

13 days - last night 






Closeup showing the mycelium.

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 1


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## JerseyHighlander (May 18, 2022)




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## trc65 (May 20, 2022)

Frank's observation on the spalting being through the thickness is correct, and gives me hope that what I'm observing is more than skin deep. I didn't pay much attention to the bottom, but I believe the lines have darkened and thickened. Here is a picture of the bottom.





And a picture of the inside at day 15. The bowl lost only a few grams of weigh over the last two days, so not much further change is expected.

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 3


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## trc65 (Oct 11, 2022)

Remember this bowl? Sorry to say that spalting is indeed only skin deep, at least in this case. Here is a picture of some of the shavings to illustrate the point.





And a picture of the bowl while cutting the inside. 





The original spalting is still nice, but a little disappointed that the additional was only on the surface. I'll post some pictures of the bowl when I get some finish on it.

Reactions: Like 5


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## William Tanner (Oct 11, 2022)

Still interesting. How does it turn?


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## trc65 (Oct 11, 2022)

It's soft, lightweight and easy to turn. The wood is all sound, but it can tear easily if you try to hog it off (because it's soft). Shear cut with the wing of a gouge, or a negative rake scraper clean up any tear out fairly quickly.

Reactions: Like 1 | Useful 2


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## William Tanner (Oct 12, 2022)

trc65 said:


> It's soft, lightweight and easy to turn. The wood is all sound, but it can tear easily if you try to hog it off (because it's soft). Shear cut with the wing of a gouge, or a negative rake scraper clean up any tear out fairly quickly.


Thanks Tim. Gives me a clear perspective of what it is like.

Reactions: Like 1


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## DLJeffs (Oct 12, 2022)

I still like the bowl and the spalting pattern. A few well placed black lines to me is really eye catching. Your experiment tracked weight (I assume moisture loss) versus visual spalting growth. I know nothing about spalting but it makes sense that moisture is needed to support / sustain fungal growth. It might be interesting to some how keep the moisture content higher through the test cycle and see if the fungal growth continues.

Reactions: Like 1


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## trc65 (Oct 12, 2022)

It makes sense that the spalting didn't penetrate further into the wood. I didn't do anything to maintain moisture content in the piece, rather just watched what happened as it dried.

If someone wanted to experiment with trying to spalt individual pieces, you'd definitely want to use plastic bags somewhere in the equation to maintain moisture content.

I don't plan to mess with individual pieces, it's much easier to leave logs laying in the woods and let nature do the work.

It was very interesting though to see what fungi can do, even while drying a piece.

Reactions: Like 1


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Oct 12, 2022)

I suppose if one was die hard about it, they would set up a system similar to a chick brooder with heat and water that was humidity and temperature controllable.

Reactions: Like 1 | Creative 1


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