Black fungus

[Brian Grenia]

My maple and pecan have been spalting too long and have a lot of black in them. Are these gonna finish worth a darn or should I put it on the burn pile. Don't wanna waste time roughing and drying if they aren't gonna finish at all

Thanks

 

[Bill Boehme]

Something to be especially concerned about is the possibility of the turning flying off the lathe if the wood is not sound. If the wood is soft, or has flaws or abrupt transitions from hard to punky areas, there is a very likely chance that it will come out of the chuck. Do not use it if the tenon is not solid. That is probably the best case scenario of things that could go wrong. The worst case would be if the piece of wood breaks into two or more pieces because that is when there is a likelihood of the piece coming off the lathe at high velocity. You do not want a situation like that because it can put you in the hospital or worse. If you decide that the wood has sufficient structural integrity, you could try turning it, but stop often and carefully inspect it for problems.

In all cases, run the lathe at slow speed, listen for sound changes as you are turning, wear your safety gear, and keep well clear of the throw zone.

If you decide that it is safe to turn the piece, it will only cost you time to find out if the wood will turn satisfactorily. If you are a rank beginner, it might be best to forget about trying to turn it.

Punky wood is not easy to turn and get good results. For a beginner, it may be pushing the envelope, but if nothing else, it will show you why having razor sharp tools is important as well as proper cutting technique. If the wood is too punky, there will be lots of deep tear out.

To paraphrase an aviation saying, "There are old turners and bold turners, but there are no old bold turners."

 

[Brian Grenia]

It's not pinky nor soft. Just real "gray". I have roughed a few and there's no problem with the soundness, i just can't picture a finished product with the gray in it.

 

[Bill Boehme]

When you put a finish on the wood, the color will change and it may not look as gray. Another option is to bleach before finishing. The pecan bowl does not appear to be too gray.

 

[Ian Thorn]

If you give it a wipe with a wet rag you will get an idea of the colour of the finished bowl

Cheers Ian

 

[John Beaver]

Good candidates for dye. Sometimes the grey creates a nice variance in the dye.

 

[Nate Hawkes]

For what its worth, spalted pecan can be especially pretty when finished. I personally like the gray speckles, because they add variation to the color. I have found that using a tung rather than linseed oil based finish causes less muddiness to a spalted piece of wood. The same can happen with spalted sycamore--I've often used lacquer sanding sealer before another finish to keep the colors in the bowl from more or less running together. No mater what you end up doing, keep us in the loop, and let's see some pictures along the way.

 

[Brian Grenia]

Glad I didn't split all the maple for firewood. The pieces buried in my spalt pile were too far gone, but I put a bunch of big slabs in trash bags and they seem to be just about right.

 

[Brian Grenia]

Plus I finally got to use the number 4 knife in my One Way coring system.