Wood spalting as you may never seen it...!

George Valentine

Hi folks...!

I don't think that will be necessary to explain/define wood spalting and all the various fungi that develop in green/wet wood, as we all, the one way of the other, have dealt with it.

While some turners would not touch any woods that show any signs of spalting or fungi presence, others will give their preference to any woods that have as much spalting as possible. Is also true that, "most" trees a good candidates for natural spalting, particularly after the trees have been cut down and left on the moist ground for a short period of time, there some turners out there that go to great extents to provoke extreme spalting in woods that they have store, being a few ways to achieve that.

However, the reason of this thread, is to show to all of you people, some work I've done a few days ago on some Pepper Corn blanks that I have cut and processed (cut to size and wax on the end grain) and put to dry in my drying shelves.

The tree was very green and the blanks I processed were done so, the day after I cut the Pepper tree down so, the wood was very green and very wet.
This is the same process I take for all green timbers so that I dispose (next year's firewood) of the left overs, making the blanks dry faster and take a lot less space than having the logs stored.

This was the first time I worked with this type of wood and I could see that the wood was full of sap and a white/milkish colour liquid, coming out of the chainsaw cuts. The square and round blanks were stored on top of each other, without any "separators" which I should have used, as the wood was very wet but I din't thing that would be critical to the wood preservation and drying.

A couple of days ago I had someone asking me if I had any round blanks from the Pepper Corn tree wood, which I answered "informative" but need to measure them up to confirm sizes suitability. This was when I notice a lot of fungi in between blanks (where they were in contact to each other), even tough the blanks had been waxed all around and up to 1" 1/2 on the flat faces, leaving a relatively small area of raw/un-waxed wood so that the moisture could come out from.

I had my heavy duty working glasses on, so I could see these very small little bugs moving within the areas with the fungi so, and curious about how they would look like zoomed out, I got my digital camera and zoomed in a far as I could and took some pics. In them, is perfectly visible a number of different creature species moving around so I though in take one of the blanks to the house, and use my USB Microscope up to 200 x Zoom, as I new that I could record a video of the movement, making it a lot more real and natural.

So I did and the result was a small video about 3.5 minutes which I don't seem to be able to download on YouTube, for whatever reason but I could use my account here to download it into for public viewing, If I manage to provide the correct link...!

While I'm no Biologist or a "dude" that specializes in this kind of things, I was myself intrigued when I saw all this fungi on top of these green blanks. I have had other woods that had grown lots of fungi pretty quickly but, I never spend much time is study it a bit further so, I have no doubt that some woods are more prone to the fungi growth, with the Pepper Corn wood being the most active I've seen for a long time.

Was not the different fungi colours and quantity that brought my attention but those long worms and some of those dark round creatures that I saw moving. Impossible to determine how they look like, even with those shots with my maxiMacro from my digital camera, that were all done free hand, which is not the way to get a clear image at such zoom but, they come out OK...!

As I was saying, I wanted to have an idea of how those 2 creatures looked like, so the use of my inexpensive USB Microscope was the only way I could try to have a good or at least reasonable definition of the shape/look of these 2 creatures that, for my surprised, were not the only 2 habitats of this eco-system, but a few more smaller and stranger creatures.

Was always my understanding that, fungi in its enormous variety, is composed of microscopic creatures that develop that particular type of fungi, wood spalting, is made by a great variety also of fungi types, depending of the wood composition, the "bluing" and the dark lines are made of certain types of fungi, these fungi will change stages as the wood loses its moisture, and consequently activate other types of fungi that develop from the various stages of the wood decomposition.

The very beginning of the wood decomposition is initiated by fungi, and with time, the wood cells will collapse and become softer. All these creatures and many more that are impossible to see with a naked eye, are there doing its work but the only thing we can see is the colours and the wood texture change, as a result of their presence.

So, none of these creatures are what we know and call, "wood eaters", those are totally different creatures that can attack wood at any stages of the tree life, from green to dry/dead, and that is where people get confused. Every form of fungi is a microscopic creature that can have any shape and size imaginable and I have no doubt that anyone with a degree on these issues would be able to put the correct terminology on what I'm saying but, this is the best I can do, sorry...!

Still, I reckon is a fascinating thing to watch...!!!

So, here they are, a few pics and then the video...! enjoy.

PS: I didn't put any sound (music) on the video clip, sorry...!




Cheers
George

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Paul Toivonen

I think the Schinus wood is good for nothing.
You cant burn it, a host for parasites/pathogens, the sap sticks to everything, clags your equipment up, heavy, bark is crumbly, the leaves stink, they always drop rubbish, the roots are invasive, the list goes on...

Eric Frei

Ho hum, hey George, check this out. LOL

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George Valentine

Yep, I agree with you on everything apart from the bit where you say, "the Schinus wood is good for nothing." you are far from the truth in here my friend, maybe you don;t have any use for it but "moi" I can make the most beautiful stuff out of this wood, particularly the burled areas, from bowls, platters, plates, vases, jewellery boxes, pens, bottle stopper handles, and a thousand other things that can be made out of wood, any wood, really, even the rotten stuff I can revive to solid wood, with the most unbelievable colours and grains.

Sure, I'm not your average "tree worker/person", 90% of what I cut now, is because I have a use for it, the one way or the other so, no chipping here, well, nothing over 3" anyway...!

It seems that I have t o make a few pieces with this wood for you to see, actually, I will make a nice pen out of the burled stuff as soon as it dries a bit more (or I may have to microwave it, to get it dry quick...!) and I will send it to you as a "gift", this is a promise and I have everyone here to witness it

I actually turned the smallest round blank (5" x 1"1/2) a couple of days ago, (pics attached) still very green, just to see how far the "bluing" in the wood went already. I only gave it a coat of natural timber oil and within minutes the wife claimed it to fill with peanuts for the Christmas and New Year table...!

So, the only thing you have to do now is to wait for this pen, made of Pepper Corn tree, from my neck of the woods...!

Cheers
George

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