something to look forward to! I have an acacia trunk that has some fungal growth on......think I'll get it cut open n see.. hopefully I'll have some spalting and I can follow you for what to do!
I love the looks of spalted wood. Here in South Texas I get quite a bit of it. Hickory, oak, pecan, hackberry, cedar elm to name a few. I am in the middle of building cabinetry in our butler’s pantry and am using live edge pecan. Some of it I fell sat there a year before milling into lumber and it has tremendous salting in it
3-4 months, really its like reading a book finding out its part of a trilogy that the next part doesn't come out till next year. You sir are a devious man... Think I like it. LOL Seriously cant wait to see the results
I recently got my hands of ash planks from the pier. the colors are amazing. From white, through gray, to almost black, and pure ash all around, it was enough to tear a few millimeters from the top. I got lucky, year or two and i would have garbage, now it's treasure.
Out here in British Columbia we have to much of that green spalting, we call that a Tulip Maple of its spalted with 4 or five colours. Usually Pink,Green,Red and purple, it can be rather taxing too work with. Don't plan on chiseling with it 🤘
Pretty interesting indeed! 😃 Keep us updated about the progress, Colin!!! I just didn't understand what is the product you added there... Is it some kind of soil? Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Very interesting! I never thought about that. Then again, I still know too little about wood! It's going to exciting (or hugely embarrassing) to see the result!
What a great idea, thanks I am going to try that. If I could replicate the beautiful flame red we get around here in box elder I would be the thrilled! Thanks
"...get the fungus out..." By golly Ollie! I believe he's crafted a new colloquialism which could be used in a number of fungal situations! Good job Colin! (Smile)
I never thought about this until today and I said.. Self it should not be to hard because one of the things I always find it in for little boxes and knife handles and such is fire wood and or fallen wood that has been laying in a bunch of wet leaves. Elm is a gorgeous one that most people do not work with the lumber much anyway. But the Idea of collecting it in shavings makes me think the jointer taking a good 16th might be a good way. Then I felt dumb because most the pieces I collect are pretty small my jointer is one of the tools I use to process them. I just need to keep the shavings. Anyway I paused at the beginning so I will give you a watch. I love splatted lumber too.
A decent size piece of beech placed in a plastic bag and fed beer, works well. That is, of course, if you can bear to part with the beer.😱 The largest piece I've done was a trunk about 400mm dia x 600mm. It took 18 months or so but it was worth the wait. I've never seen green spalting either, Colin. Can you send me some spores? Pretty please!!
Could you tell me more about that? I have some beech (in fact it's meant to be firewood). I have some parts of the stem (already 5 years drying), but also quarter-split parts of it, newer, 1 year drying) A plastic bag will not be a problem. But what is fed beer? And where should I put it (and at what temperature)?
@@hansdegroot8549 I'm not sure how it will work with seasoned beech, Hans. The fungi are present in living beech trees and only start to break the wood down after it dies, so starting with with unseasoned wood is probably best. However, some of the fungus and probably most of the spores may have survived drying out. You can always experiment by doing what Colin did and introduce some recovered fresh material. When I said "fed beer", I meant I had been feeding it beer. 😎👍 A small bottle every month or two. It keeps the timber damp and adds nutrient for the fungi. I never bothered about temperature. It's natural for the process to be out in all weathers, so I leave it outside and let nature do it's thing. That's the theory anyway. On the other hand, the fungi may get to that level of drunk, when they say "I really, really love you." and there's a baby boom. 🍻😘😘🤰🤰🤰🤰🤰🤰 Good luck! I'll be interested to know how you get on.
@@hansdegroot8549 : All decent beers are brewed from water, malted grain, hops and yeast. So I guess that the nutrients are exactly those that put inches on our waistline. I don't think the alcohol does anything, except make the fungi happy with life. 😊
After that thorough soaking, if the desired spalt is reached, it should be dried as quickly as possible. Ordinary stick drying will allow the spalt to continue for some time, maybe advancing much further than wanted, even allowing significant rot, so i would recommend kiln drying for as long as recommended for that kiln.
Hello I have some actual amazing shimmering green spalted wood , maybe I can send you a picture of it ? I also have the wet log where I get it from . It’s real spalting from fir trees that are on the ground year round . This fungus only seems to show in fir . It’s not from copper:)
i have a huge pile of wood in my back yard. maple. has been sitting in the back yard and covered in fungus among us. some Alder also. making a Alaskan saw mill . had to cut up all the small stuff my pops wanted fire wood and is sick of looken at it and wants new wood brought in. i have like 3, 30ish foot sections of the trunk that got cut into 5 ft sections for some reason. too heavy most likely. its got spalting on every inch. not to much staining or rotting on the pieces i already cut up. just gotta move quick before he burns it all. the logs i did plank up i free hand cut it with a crafts man electric chain saw. which they turned up terrible.
I usually burn firewood every year, too, but only during more extremes in cold weather. Thus, I have a small stockpile that's about four years seasoned. I thought it would all meet the inside of my wood stove eventually, but now I'm not so sure.
Is Spalted Wood something a person going out into the forest would find in most areas in North America or is it primarily found in particular climates or conditions? I live in southern Pennsylvania. I enjoy your videos and I never heard of spalted wood until you did a video on it a few months ago.
It is a normal process of decaying, so it should be found just about any where. Regular construction lumber is not going to have it because the trees don’t lie on the ground to decay after cutting down. Look for local lumber mills or specialty lumber stores to find it.
One thing I discovered by accident about 20 years ago... We had a really ugly pine tree that my wife wanted me to cut down. Most of it, I cut and split for firewood, but I did keep one piece out to try some green turning. The day I cut the tree down I took about a 12 inch log and painted both ends with red candle wax to keep it from checking too badly. (Do not make the same mistake I did and use your wife's good crockpot for melting the wax! That was a bad idea.) I set the log aside for only about 3-4 weeks before doing a rough turning of 2 bowls, down to maybe 1 inch thick walls. The spalting from the red candle wax in only 3-4 weeks was unbelievable! It had flame shaped areas of light gray coming in from the red wax. And there were black veins running through the gray. That, mixing with the natural pine was really dramatic. I am not sure if the red candle wax did it or if there was something already in the tree, but the effect was really something. Just to finish the story... I packed both rough bowls in boxes packed with sawdust for about 4 months before trying the finish turning. One did not survive the drying; it split badly and could not be salvaged. But the other turned out really great. We still have it.
Interesting video Collin. I’m sure you have been asked this many times in the past but what is the tool that is on the the left set of your shelves lower left corner? I almost always learn something new from your videos.
Scot. I have one of these that my Dad gave me years ago. It is a Veritas Poly Gauge from Lee Valley. They are no longer available and are used for setting various angles for 4,5,6,8 and 12 sided miters. Always accurate and no batteries required !
I met a woodworker in Hawaii and they made spalted wood. They had a pile exposed to the elements and they would just toss on wood. In a couple months the pieces would be done.
I am very surprised there have not been more comments on the dangers of using a chainsaw in the way that you did. Only one other person has mentioned the risk of kick back. The tip of a chain bar should never come in to contact with any solid object. Serious injury can occur. Otherwise really enjoyed the video.
"To be continued"?? Aughhhh, I was expecting you to have done this months ago, and we'd be treated to a reveal of the results in this video 😣 Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing how it turns out! BTW, what part of the country do you live in where it only hits 75 in the summer? It gets into the triple digits in August here in the midwest, with humidity way up there too...
Very good video. It brought to mind some articles concerning this subject I read in the past so I did a little search. I came across an article by Sara Robinson from Fine Woodworking mag and she suggested to put some small blocks of the material to be spalted along with your bigger wood samples. She suggested that you extract one of these blocks after 6 weeks to examine the progess of the spalt, and every 2 weeks afterward until you are satisfied with the progress. I haven't read her book, but I thought I would pass this on if it might be of some use to you.. What intrigued me was that I had read that beer be used as a nutrient for the fungi, but my recent search pretty much debunked that. So much for beer being the Universal Elixir. I will follow your site to see how this turns out. Good luck!
It would have been nice if you had started this months before releasing this video, so we wouldn't have to wait until the cows come home before finding out if the smell ran you out of your shop, and if you ended up growing magic mushrooms, morels or something else.🤗 The results to the wood might be interesting too!👍 Patience is not one of my strongest traits.🙄
for those interested in more on spalted wood search for Mark Lindquist his youtube channel, there you can find an eight part video series with Dr Sara who wrote that book, it's pretty solid info.. cheers
I think you are "barking" up the wrong tree here, I believe that fungus appeared after the log was split and sitting in the pile, and that is when the green chlorophyll manifested itself on the log, not during or part of the spalting process itself. Open air fungus can have chlorophyll involved due to UV light getting in, but veins of fungus within a log would not.
I agree totally. Also I believe he will not get any kind of results. He needs to introduce some form of heat with some form of light penetration. Then the fungi spores would multiply like crazy. But i wish him the best of luck. Also logically I would think it would take years for something like this to happen.
I have found out its takes about a year to get a good deal of spalting from felling a tree in my area which is South Texas. I’ll cut a tree and let it lay on the ground and turn it 180 in 6 months. It’s Mother Nature in reality, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The tree once its cut starts to decay and it’s a timing thing after that. There’s a fine line between great effects of spalting and having rotten punky wood.
You have taken a risk there - if it doesn’t turn out you have lost the nice piece of spalting you already had. I think I would have sliced a piece off to keep before grinding up the rest.
You can just bury the wood blanks in soil in your garden. No need to go through hoops unless you really really really want a very specific fungul growth.
I am so interested in seeing the result! I have never heard of forcing spalting on your own wood. Would love to try this someday.
Your kitchen looked beautiful. Very nicely done. 👍
Was there ever a follow up video for this? I'd love to see the results!
Thanks for explaining that ! I never really knew what spalting was. Can't wait to see it.
Good Luck! I am looking forward to the results.
something to look forward to! I have an acacia trunk that has some fungal growth on......think I'll get it cut open n see.. hopefully I'll have some spalting and I can follow you for what to do!
Thanks for letting us in on the start. I may try my own in near future!
I've heard of leaving your stock in old leaves but this is a new one on me! I hope it's worked when you open it up later in the year.
Thanks for sharing those tips, and the make!
That was interesting! Can't wait until this summer to see how it works out. Green with that color wood should be pretty cool.
A slow-motion cliff hanger. And the cartoon opportunities! Thanks fir the video.
Wow I had no idea...definitely will have to stay tuned. A new dimension is added!
I like learning new things from your channel. I never knew what that was on wood
looking forward to seeing the outcome Colin
It's going to be interesting to see just how well this turns out!
Thanks for sharing that info with us, mate, good luck. 👍🏽
Great video Colin. I would want to watch it. I would want to put a clear perspex lid on it. Can't wait to see it.
Hoping for an update soon.
Well I learned something new. Had never heard of the term and anxious to see the results. Good luck
I love the looks of spalted wood. Here in South Texas I get quite a bit of it. Hickory, oak, pecan, hackberry, cedar elm to name a few.
I am in the middle of building cabinetry in our butler’s pantry and am using live edge pecan. Some of it I fell sat there a year before milling into lumber and it has tremendous salting in it
Was there ever a follow up video to this?
Very interesting! Looking forward to see how it turns out!
Excited to see part two!!!! Any day now fella??
3-4 months, really its like reading a book finding out its part of a trilogy that the next part doesn't come out till next year. You sir are a devious man... Think I like it. LOL Seriously cant wait to see the results
It's great to see someone of your experience get super excited over a find like this.
I recently got my hands of ash planks from the pier. the colors are amazing. From white, through gray, to almost black, and pure ash all around, it was enough to tear a few millimeters from the top. I got lucky, year or two and i would have garbage, now it's treasure.
Colin, most interesting! We’ll see what transpires!
Interesting experiment! Hope it works out for you, Colin. ☺
Since we live in an area where we get lots of spalted wood. The hackberry has a great deal of the blue and green lines.
Did I miss the results? Still fermenting??
This will be an exciting experiment. I so hope that it works.
Very interesting! I just found this today so I'm going to now search for a followup.
Wow that looks amazing.
Hope it works Colin, looking forward to seeing the results.
Out here in British Columbia we have to much of that green spalting, we call that a Tulip Maple of its spalted with 4 or five colours. Usually Pink,Green,Red and purple, it can be rather taxing too work with. Don't plan on chiseling with it 🤘
Can't wait to see how it works out. I wonder if you could do larger stock by wrapping it up in a tarp.
Interesting. Can’t wait to see results in a few months.
Pretty interesting indeed! 😃
Keep us updated about the progress, Colin!!!
I just didn't understand what is the product you added there... Is it some kind of soil?
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Thanks for sharing, great video!!
Very interesting and looking forward to the results a few months from now.
BTW 40s in winter and 70s in summer - what's the zip code of this heaven?
Did you ever post the after video?
Very interesting! I never thought about that. Then again, I still know too little about wood! It's going to exciting (or hugely embarrassing) to see the result!
What a great idea, thanks I am going to try that. If I could replicate the beautiful flame red we get around here in box elder I would be the thrilled! Thanks
I really want to see the outcome
Looking forward to see if this works!
"...get the fungus out..." By golly Ollie! I believe he's crafted a new colloquialism which could be used in a number of fungal situations! Good job Colin! (Smile)
Hammer and chisel man.
I never thought about this until today and I said.. Self it should not be to hard because one of the things I always find it in for little boxes and knife handles and such is fire wood and or fallen wood that has been laying in a bunch of wet leaves. Elm is a gorgeous one that most people do not work with the lumber much anyway. But the Idea of collecting it in shavings makes me think the jointer taking a good 16th might be a good way. Then I felt dumb because most the pieces I collect are pretty small my jointer is one of the tools I use to process them. I just need to keep the shavings. Anyway I paused at the beginning so I will give you a watch. I love splatted lumber too.
I love making with spalted wood. How did it turn out?
So is there a follow up on how the spalting went
excited to see what happens
I love this, is there a way to get a fungus growing without using fungus from another tree?
A decent size piece of beech placed in a plastic bag and fed beer, works well. That is, of course, if you can bear to part with the beer.😱
The largest piece I've done was a trunk about 400mm dia x 600mm. It took 18 months or so but it was worth the wait.
I've never seen green spalting either, Colin. Can you send me some spores? Pretty please!!
Could you tell me more about that? I have some beech (in fact it's meant to be firewood). I have some parts of the stem (already 5 years drying),
but also quarter-split parts of it, newer, 1 year drying) A plastic bag will not be a problem. But what is fed beer? And where should I put it (and at what temperature)?
@@hansdegroot8549 I'm not sure how it will work with seasoned beech, Hans. The fungi are present in living beech trees and only start to break the wood down after it dies, so starting with with unseasoned wood is probably best. However, some of the fungus and probably most of the spores may have survived drying out. You can always experiment by doing what Colin did and introduce some recovered fresh material.
When I said "fed beer", I meant I had been feeding it beer. 😎👍 A small bottle every month or two. It keeps the timber damp and adds nutrient for the fungi. I never bothered about temperature. It's natural for the process to be out in all weathers, so I leave it outside and let nature do it's thing. That's the theory anyway.
On the other hand, the fungi may get to that level of drunk, when they say "I really, really love you." and there's a baby boom. 🍻😘😘🤰🤰🤰🤰🤰🤰
Good luck! I'll be interested to know how you get on.
@@farrier2708 Thanks for the explanation. What substance in beer is the nutriciant? Not all beers are made (brewed) the same way.
@@hansdegroot8549 : All decent beers are brewed from water, malted grain, hops and yeast. So I guess that the nutrients are exactly those that put inches on our waistline.
I don't think the alcohol does anything, except make the fungi happy with life. 😊
Hi. Thanks for your video. Did it work? Did you get some result? :-)
That is the quietest chainsaw I've ever heard! @5:30
I look foreword to the results..
so what were the results of making spalted wood???? I can"t find a followup video!
Hi Colin, did it work?
I’ve seen (something similar to ) this process but never for this purpose. Both provide pretty colors though.
How did it turn out?
How long after the spalting does it take for the wood to dry?
After that thorough soaking, if the desired spalt is reached, it should be dried as quickly as possible. Ordinary stick drying will allow the spalt to continue for some time, maybe advancing much further than wanted, even allowing significant rot, so i would recommend kiln drying for as long as recommended for that kiln.
Hello
I have some actual amazing shimmering green spalted wood , maybe I can send you a picture of it ?
I also have the wet log where I get it from .
It’s real spalting from fir trees
that are on the ground year round .
This fungus only seems to show in fir .
It’s not from copper:)
i have a huge pile of wood in my back yard. maple. has been sitting in the back yard and covered in fungus among us. some Alder also. making a Alaskan saw mill . had to cut up all the small stuff my pops wanted fire wood and is sick of looken at it and wants new wood brought in. i have like 3, 30ish foot sections of the trunk that got cut into 5 ft sections for some reason. too heavy most likely. its got spalting on every inch. not to much staining or rotting on the pieces i already cut up. just gotta move quick before he burns it all. the logs i did plank up i free hand cut it with a crafts man electric chain saw. which they turned up terrible.
Can you keep using your "mash" for more wood?
I’m getting toenail fungus adds now
That's interesting. It looks like making yoghurt for woodworkers. I'm curious what will come out in 3 or 4 months.
TIL what spalted wood is.
40 to 75 degrees? Where are you located? This temp range sounds amazing! Definitely way better than negative teens (with wind) to 100+.
Colin, I'm glad that chain saw never kicked back while chipping away at that cut firewood piece. That was a very risky procedure.
I usually burn firewood every year, too, but only during more extremes in cold weather. Thus, I have a small stockpile that's about four years seasoned. I thought it would all meet the inside of my wood stove eventually, but now I'm not so sure.
Is Spalted Wood something a person going out into the forest would find in most areas in North America or is it primarily found in particular climates or conditions? I live in southern Pennsylvania. I enjoy your videos and I never heard of spalted wood until you did a video on it a few months ago.
It is a normal process of decaying, so it should be found just about any where. Regular construction lumber is not going to have it because the trees don’t lie on the ground to decay after cutting down. Look for local lumber mills or specialty lumber stores to find it.
One thing I discovered by accident about 20 years ago... We had a really ugly pine tree that my wife wanted me to cut down. Most of it, I cut and split for firewood, but I did keep one piece out to try some green turning. The day I cut the tree down I took about a 12 inch log and painted both ends with red candle wax to keep it from checking too badly. (Do not make the same mistake I did and use your wife's good crockpot for melting the wax! That was a bad idea.)
I set the log aside for only about 3-4 weeks before doing a rough turning of 2 bowls, down to maybe 1 inch thick walls. The spalting from the red candle wax in only 3-4 weeks was unbelievable! It had flame shaped areas of light gray coming in from the red wax. And there were black veins running through the gray. That, mixing with the natural pine was really dramatic.
I am not sure if the red candle wax did it or if there was something already in the tree, but the effect was really something.
Just to finish the story... I packed both rough bowls in boxes packed with sawdust for about 4 months before trying the finish turning. One did not survive the drying; it split badly and could not be salvaged. But the other turned out really great. We still have it.
Interesting video Collin. I’m sure you have been asked this many times in the past but what is the tool that is on the the left set of your shelves lower left corner? I almost always learn something new from your videos.
Scot. I have one of these that my Dad gave me years ago. It is a Veritas Poly Gauge from Lee Valley. They are no longer available and are used for setting various angles for 4,5,6,8 and 12 sided miters. Always accurate and no batteries required !
I met a woodworker in Hawaii and they made spalted wood. They had a pile exposed to the elements and they would just toss on wood. In a couple months the pieces would be done.
I am very surprised there have not been more comments on the dangers of using a chainsaw in the way that you did. Only one other person has mentioned the risk of kick back. The tip of a chain bar should never come in to contact with any solid object. Serious injury can occur. Otherwise really enjoyed the video.
"To be continued"?? Aughhhh, I was expecting you to have done this months ago, and we'd be treated to a reveal of the results in this video 😣 Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
BTW, what part of the country do you live in where it only hits 75 in the summer? It gets into the triple digits in August here in the midwest, with humidity way up there too...
British Columbia
Very good video. It brought to mind some articles concerning this subject I read in the past so I did a little search. I came across an article by Sara Robinson from Fine Woodworking mag and she suggested to put some small blocks of the material to be spalted along with your bigger wood samples. She suggested that you extract one of these blocks after 6 weeks to examine the progess of the spalt, and every 2 weeks afterward until you are satisfied with the progress. I haven't read her book, but I thought I would pass this on if it might be of some use to you.. What intrigued me was that I had read that beer be used as a nutrient for the fungi, but my recent search pretty much debunked that. So much for beer being the Universal Elixir. I will follow your site to see how this turns out. Good luck!
See you in 3 months!
It seems that there's a fungus amongus.
Did it work!?!?!
It would have been nice if you had started this months before releasing this video, so we wouldn't have to wait until the cows come home before finding out if the smell ran you out of your shop, and if you ended up growing magic mushrooms, morels or something else.🤗
The results to the wood might be interesting too!👍
Patience is not one of my strongest traits.🙄
Why not a hatchet?
for those interested in more on spalted wood search for Mark Lindquist his youtube channel, there you can find an eight part video series with Dr Sara who wrote that book, it's pretty solid info.. cheers
Weird, I see StumpyNubs make a video on Spalted wood, 2 days later I see yours,.,.,.,.....
I think you are "barking" up the wrong tree here, I believe that fungus appeared after the log was split and sitting in the pile, and that is when the green chlorophyll manifested itself on the log, not during or part of the spalting process itself. Open air fungus can have chlorophyll involved due to UV light getting in, but veins of fungus within a log would not.
I'd tend to agree with you, but my guess is that the green streak is from cyanobacteria
I agree totally.
Also I believe he will not get any kind of results.
He needs to introduce some form of heat with some form of light penetration.
Then the fungi spores would multiply like crazy.
But i wish him the best of luck.
Also logically I would think it would take years for something like this to happen.
I have found out its takes about a year to get a good deal of spalting from felling a tree in my area which is South Texas. I’ll cut a tree and let it lay on the ground and turn it 180 in 6 months. It’s Mother Nature in reality, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The tree once its cut starts to decay and it’s a timing thing after that. There’s a fine line between great effects of spalting and having rotten punky wood.
You have taken a risk there - if it doesn’t turn out you have lost the nice piece of spalting you already had. I think I would have sliced a piece off to keep before grinding up the rest.
You're mad. Talented, interesting but most definitely batty. Lol. Thanks.
Uses distiled water and sterile vermiculite to avoid contamination. Proceeds to harvest fungal spores by means of a chainsaw.
Would of rather of seen it in 3months Colin than have to wait .😠
Well, make sure you don’t start a new pandemic! You know there is only so few medicines against fungal infection.
Spalted wood spoiled
Umm.... What just happened?
You can just bury the wood blanks in soil in your garden. No need to go through hoops unless you really really really want a very specific fungul growth.