• Background to wood and its history,  wood craft,  wood turning

    Spalted woods. Which wood to spalt?

    Which wood to spalt? Beech is by far the easiest wood to spalt well. It almost always ends up with black line and distinctly different colours. This bowl shows only one area left with the wood in its natural state. All the rest has been affected by fungi. I don’t know how many different ones. It was at the very limit of having enough structural integrity to work. Even with the gauge straight off the grinder it was difficult not to get tear out on the end grain. This wood had been left outside in all weathers for a year and a few months. It was a large tree and…

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  • Background to wood and its history,  Uncategorized,  wood craft,  wood turning

    Spalted Wood. How wood spalts.

    Spalted wood. Spalted wood is where fungus or more usually several different fungi have been introduced to the wood. This is most commonly after the tree has been felled but sometimes it is a fungus which has killed the tree so the timber has already been spalted. Spalted wood can be created deliberately or can occur by accident as I have found out several times over the years! Spalted wood can be created as easily as:- Leaving the freshly sawn wood out in the weather, popping it into a plastic bag or burying the wood in wood shavings. However, knowing when the wood will be spalted enough to work but…