How to spead up spalting

[russell e. gray]

In one of our back issues < > 1yr there AAW mags there was an article about getting wood to spalt by using different fungus,any info on this would be of help,i'm in S/E NC,WAWA,Thanks Russ.

 

[john lucas]

If your an AAW member you can access all the back issues and do a search. Another option which you've started here is to simply ask. I'm not sure there is a way to speed up spalting. There do seem to be ways to help it get started. I think drinking beer had something to do with it. Oh maybe that was pouring beer on the wood, I get those two confused.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Best to try John's first method and then wait a few months to see what happens before pouring it directly onto the wood.

Besides, you ought not serve alcohol to a minor organism.

I've never had much sucess trying to convince a parasite to work faster anyway.

 

[john lucas]

I found this. Do a simple search on google for how to spalt wood and you'll find much more.
http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/spalt-your-own-lumber.aspx

 

[Mark Mandell]

I found this. Do a simple search on google for how to spalt wood and you'll find much more.
http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/spalt-your-own-lumber.aspx

Sara has done a lot of research and has a book out on the subject. She gave a very good lecture on spalting your own wood at the 2012 Symposium.

Save the beer, new and used, but you can feed the fungi using 46-0-0 fertilizer. Dissolve a cup in a gallon of luke warm water and soak your wood with it The nitrogen will accellerate groth of the fungi that spalt the wood.

Keep the wood wet and room temp.

 

[n7bsn]

Sara is the expert, listen to her advice

 

[russell e. gray]

Spalting wood

Thanks for the info. I'll bypass the beer,myself, i was a "boiler maker" drinker 25 yrs ago & still clean. I'm going to try the 46-0-0,i have plenty of rotted wood around. I not only turn wood but heat with it.Russ,S/E,N.C. WAWA

 

[robo hippy]

Vernon Lebrand, a turner in Washington, almost on the Canada border does it best. He loves monkey puzzle trees for turning. Takes a log section out and puts it end grain down on the lawn. Spectacular spaulting in 10 days. It is always moist and humid up there. Not sure how it would work else where though.

robo hippy

 

[MichaelMouse]

Keep the wood wet and room temp.

Which is easy some places, but not so easy in Houghton, Michigan, which is why Sara has to go out of her way to maintain warmth and moisture.

I prefer using a long log, rolled periodically to even the spalting effect. Standing short cuts on end and blocking water escape with a board works, but takes a bit more care to make sure one end doesn't go punk while the other's still in process.

For the drinkers of diuretic liquid, urea and uric acid are high in nitrates....

 

[mark ravensdale]

Here's what I do, and it's worked great for me,
I get the log, stick one end (end grain) into mud then leave it standing upright then on the other end (top) I get some earth/mud and pile it on top then wait, the wood splats MUCH faster than if you just leave the log laying on the ground!
But just remember NOT to use a sealer on the end grain,
I have also heard that a mixture of yoghurt and dog excrement works well! But I think I'll pass on that one😱

 

[Bill Boehme]

... For the drinkers of diuretic liquid, urea and uric acid are high in nitrates....

[light bulb on] I see a dual purpose in John's beer suggestion -- a substitute for furosemide and a spalting nutrient.[/light bulb on]

 

[n7bsn]

Vernon Lebrand, a turner in Washington, almost on the Canada border does it best. He loves monkey puzzle trees for turning. Takes a log section out and puts it end grain down on the lawn. Spectacular spaulting in 10 days. It is always moist and humid up there. Not sure how it would work else where though.

robo hippy

To the point where one time when I set a Maple log, end up, on the concrete in the shop it splated.

The trick is not getting wood to spalt, it's keeping wood from spalting.

I live west of Seattle, yes it is a bit damp here.

 

[Mark Mandell]

I have also heard that a mixture of yoghurt and dog excrement works well! But I think I'll pass on that one😱

There have to be a hundred fools with such "formulas" and a thousand other fools who will listen to them as if they knew anything.

Spalting is caused by lignin-eating fungi, not bacteria. Fungi, being vegetative, are enhanced by nitrogen fertilizer (46-0-0). Poop fat and bacteria don't do any more than the carbs in beer, meaning not at all, except to enable some idiot to later brag about how he got some fool to plaster crap and yogurt all over his wood after he soaked it with beer.

The other thing to do is inoculate the log with the right fungi. Robertson's book will explain how to do this and where to find the right fungi to use.

 

[mark ravensdale]

Mark, what really makes me giggle is did someone actually try the poop yog mixture! Man they must have been really desperate to spalt that wood🙂
And how did this mixture pop (or poop) into there head ???
Believe it or not I am 90 percent sure I can remember reading abt this mixture in Woodturning Magazine (in the UK)
There sure are some strange folks out there!!!

 

[W Jack Young]

lot of interesting theories on how to coax wood
to spalt
mine is easy set a piece up end grain in the yard
under my maple tree and forget it for 6 months
most of the time it turns out fairly good😀

like this😉

maple

or this

elm

😱oops I think I just hijacked your post
sorry😱

 

[Jim Gafney]

This is how I did it.

I put them under a deck that my wife hose off every day because it gets covered with bird poop. This washes down onto the wood daily.

http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/album.php?albumid=77&pictureid=354

http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/album.php?albumid=77&pictureid=355

http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/album.php?albumid=77&pictureid=356

 

[mark ravensdale]

I'll stick with my method of sticking the log end up into the mud/dirt and then placing mud/dirt on top, my thinking is that the fungus spores are in the dirt so the more dirt comes in contact with end grain the more chance of spalting, it's worked really well so far, and the pieces spalt faster and better than logs just left lying on the ground.

 

[Syd Sellers]

In one of our back issues < > 1yr there AAW mags there was an article about getting wood to spalt by using different fungus,any info on this would be of help,i'm in S/E NC,WAWA,Thanks Russ.

Russ, sounds like you are about to mess with "Mother Nature".
You know how the saying goes....