Spalted Maple

[JonathanF1968]

What should I do with this crazy slice of spalted maple? It was cut today. I imagine I should treat it soon so that it doesn't crack. Note that I will soon have a lot more wood from this tree.

Here's the long story.

In 2014, there was a hurricane here. Very violent and dramatic—so much so that my kids (ages 9 and 12 at the time) and I sat in our porch and watched it. I was intense.

And then suddenly, a huge 150 year old maple tree, about three feet diameter, came crashing to the ground right next to our house. Ten feet closer and it would have taken the house with it.

Big mess to clean up. But a big, long 20 foot section of the trunk was intact. I decided to have it milled into lumber. So, I found a guy. He came over and hauled it to his saw mill.

And that was the last I heard of him. In 2018, I gave him a call. He was so happy to hear from me. Yes, he still had it. He lost his phone and all his contacts, and didn't know how to get in touch with me. (He knew where I lived, but this was a small job, and so others took priority.) We agreed that he'd mill it and give me a call.

Silence….

Then finally, yesterday, i called him again. He was again very happy to hear from me and said he was just waiting for me to tell him what dimensions I wanted.

So, we agreed that I'd go over there and discuss it. I went there this morning, and there were my logs. He had cut a test section of it to reveal that in the six years it had been sitting in the mud, some mushrooms started growing on it, which created this gorgeous spalting pattern in the wood. It is very beautiful and fantastic, and it never would have happened if he had milled it right away. He claims that he will mill it this afternoon and I'll receive it tomorrow. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I've got the test slice. Probably the most intact bit I'll have from the tree, other than the stump that I haven't ground up yet.

 

[magpens]

What should you do with it ?

Well .... make pens out of it, of course !! . Don't understand why you even asked !!

I assume the slice is thick enough for that, allowing the grain to run the length of the barrel. . Not a fan of cross-cut spalted pen blanks.

 

[JonathanF1968]

I'm planning to make pens out of the lumber that comes from it. There should be enough other wood to make a few million pens.... I'll probably do about five, from it.

This section is only around 3 inches thick; a little shy for most kits, and again, there will be better options for pens. So, I wonder if there is some other thing that could be done with it.

 

[JonathanF1968]

Unless, of course, I never see the guy again....

 

[GaryMGg]

Set up a router mill, flatten this bad boy and make a table top from it.

You're getting a lot of other timber which can become pens and furniture.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Beautiful piece of wood... reminds me of a few years back, I had a lady come into my booth at the market and said she had a tree in her back yard that "had that disease"... she was pretty sure it was a maple.... I took a chance, drove the 50+ miles to her house and looked at it... it was a maple about 20 to 25 inches diameter, already cut and stacked in her yard and some of the most beautiful spalting I've ever seen... I made 3 trips in my little Ford Ranger to haul the wood home... there was way too much for me to finish all of it and some rotted before I could get it turned, but I sure had fun while I was working it... most went into bowls and pepper mills, but I still have a few smaller chunks that can be turned to bottle stoppers and such...

 

[JonathanF1968]

Yikes, he delivered the milled lumber. This is gonna be a lot of pens.... About 200 linear feet of various thicknesses, from around 1/2 inch to 4 inches thick, and up to maybe 16 to 18 inches wide???

 

[Fred Bruche]

It depends on how "good or bad" the spalted wood is. It can be spalted and soft, which would go for stabilization (with cactus juice and such), which would give you call and pen blanks. If the wood is spalted but solid then there are a lot more additional possibilities, from turning blanks (bowl, plater, peppermill,...) to lumber for furniture projects.

PS: fingernail test will somewhat give an estimate of whether it needs to be stabilized or not. If you can't leave a mark by pressing a fingernail in it then it probably doesn't need stabilization.

 

[JonathanF1968]

It depends on how "good or bad" the spalted wood is. ... fingernail test will somewhat give an estimate of whether it needs to be stabilized or not. If you can't leave a mark by pressing a fingernail in it then it probably doesn't need stabilization.

It's pretty solid!

 

[Brotherdale]

If you don't mind my asking. What did he charge you. This is something I have considered but I guess I was afraid to ask how much it would cost me.

 

[JonathanF1968]

He charged me $300, which included not only the milling but also picking up the tree, cutting down a ~10 foot section of the tree that was still standing, and delivering the milled lumber. I think it was a bargain; he felt a little bad about it taking so long.

 

[pshrynk]

Well, you've got your weekend planned!

 

[Brotherdale]

He charged me $300, which included not only the milling but also picking up the tree, cutting down a ~10 foot section of the tree that was still standing, and delivering the milled lumber. I think it was a bargain; he felt a little bad about it taking so long.

Wow! That seems really reasonable. Next time I take a tree down I will call someone for a quote.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app

 

[GaryMGg]

This is a gorgeous stack of timber.
You've got pens, boxes, display cabinets—all kinds of good projects waiting to be built.
Congratulations.

 

[JonathanF1968]

I'm busy sealing the ends with Anchorseal, a quart of which I accidentally knocked off my workbench and spilled all over the floor. Lots of ants and other creepy-crawlies living in this pile. But some gorgeous pieces of wood. Looking forward do diving in. Turned a couple eggs from some of the "throw-away" pieces, just for the fun of it. It will take me some time to figure out the right finish for this stuff. The one standing is tung oil (after removing a fiasco result with Penturners Plus) and the horizontal one is Old Masters tung/varnish combo. Might try just lacquer to see what happens.

 

[Fred Bruche]

Looking forward to pictures of the baby dragons that will come out of these eggs

 

[TellicoTurning]

I'm busy sealing the ends with Anchorseal, a quart of which I accidentally knocked off my workbench and spilled all over the floor. Lots of ants and other creepy-crawlies living in this pile. But some gorgeous pieces of wood. Looking forward do diving in. Turned a couple eggs from some of the "throw-away" pieces, just for the fun of it. It will take me some time to figure out the right finish for this stuff. The one standing is tung oil (after removing a fiasco result with Penturners Plus) and the horizontal one is Old Masters tung/varnish combo. Might try just lacquer to see what happens.

I haven't tried to do eggs yet, I did do several of the egg-o-scopes some years ago, but they're done on a mandrel... do you use a jig or just go free hand on your eggs.... they are very well done.

 

[JonathanF1968]

I haven't tried to do eggs yet, I did do several of the egg-o-scopes some years ago, but they're done on a mandrel... do you use a jig or just go free hand on your eggs.... they are very well done.

Thanks, just freehand. The first few I did, I used calipers and a real egg as a model. The ends are the hard part. I like doing them because for some pieces of wood, there's not much else to be done with them. And you don't need to buy a kit.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Thanks, I may have to try a few... I have several boxes of cut offs from other projects that need something done with them... part of them will become bottle stoppers, but eggs should also do well at my market. Will be something different I haven't offered before.

 

[JonathanF1968]

There's something endearing about the eggs. I started making them for my chickens; the theory is that you put them where you want them to lay (i.e., in the nesting box, not on the ground), and they will lay there because they like communal nests. But my wife kept arguing that they were too good for the chickens, so I made enough for both, and then Facebook friends started asking about them. Personally, I prefer more practical things, but a lot of people really seem to like the eggs. I keep one my desk and find that I am constantly playing with it. I'd be interested to hear how they do for you commercially. I am way too slow to ever consider selling anything I make. I'd be a long way from making minimum wage....

 

[TellicoTurning]

There's something endearing about the eggs. I started making them for my chickens; the theory is that you put them where you want them to lay (i.e., in the nesting box, not on the ground), and they will lay there because they like communal nests. But my wife kept arguing that they were too good for the chickens, so I made enough for both, and then Facebook friends started asking about them. Personally, I prefer more practical things, but a lot of people really seem to like the eggs. I keep one my desk and find that I am constantly playing with it. I'd be interested to hear how they do for you commercially. I am way too slow to ever consider selling anything I make. I'd be a long way from making minimum wage....

Oh don't worry, I'm no where near minimum wage with sales... I just had so many bowls and pepper mills that I had to do something with them... it's the very rare turner that come close to making a living.