Walters Domestic woods post brought this thought back to me once again.

over the years I've read and seen posts and topics on Spalted Wood and how it becomes "Spalted"

Here's my thoughts on this and many times it's said that it comes from a tree that has feld and lay in the timber for years where bugs and moisture elements cause it to become Spalted..

 

My thoughts added to this I still believe these fell trees had at one time or another been hit by Lightening.. causing the interior moisture to sort of crystalize. and also killing the tree in the process.

 

I do allot of firewood cutting as well as take timber logs.. and over the years I've seen more tree's with spalting in them that had/have been hit by lightening then I have just tree's who've died out and standing or fell this is the case I've seen.

 

just my thoughts...

 

Russ

I've got a friend here locally that does a lot of carving, and creates his own "spalted" wood. He simply covers it in wet leaves and pine straw and keeps it damp until it achieves the look he wants. 

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

Greg wouldn't that type of spalting cause the wood to be weaker/softer as to rot so to speak?

I took some photo's this morning of some spalted Hackberry and hard maple I pulled out. this wood is solid with no soft area's but has the streaks through it as though it was possibly hit by lightening and crystalized the veins in the wood..

a few years ago my brother and I cut up an old Hickory that had been hit by lightening an feld across a path.. we used this wood for firewood, but as cuting the logs and splitting you could see spalting entirely through the tree all the way to the stump and prior to the storm it was a living tree with leaves and all..

 

maybe there are different types of spalting that occures such as a fell tree that has been in the timber a few years (in which I think would cause the wood to be much softer in areas?)
 
Greg Aksdal said:

I've got a friend here locally that does a lot of carving, and creates his own "spalted" wood. He simply covers it in wet leaves and pine straw and keeps it damp until it achieves the look he wants. 

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

a few photo's of spalted Hard Maple

spalted Hackberry

I agree Russell that his way of doing it will rot the wood if left too damp for too long. He mainly does it to add a different look to the wood. Some of the spalted wood I have gotten on the past has been somewhat rotten also. Most of the trees that I have seen that have been lightning struck have had just a large black streak through them, but here it seems to be mostly pines that get struck. Another thought would be this, does the amount of sap and moisture that a tree contains when it get's struck have anything to do with it? Interesting topic. 

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

Charles, you're right about a tree exploding when struck, I have witnessed that, luckily I was in the house when it happened and the the tree was about 300 feet away. Lightning is some amazingly powerful stuff. 

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

Makes allot of sense to me..

 

I've seen tree's get blown apart when hit by lightening and Pines are very heavy in moisture content as I recall clearing lands in Florida back in the 80's... roots had turpentine (sp) in them also that was flamable...

The area of Ga. that I live in was a big producer of turpentine, we have a turpentine festival here every year, http://portalheritagesociety.org/about.html

It's amazing all the things that tupentine was used in. http://www.valdosta.edu/turpentine/Stills1.htm

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

Greg, you mentioning that the trees struck by lightening being mainly pines (turning the insides black( got me thinking the heat produced from Lightening could quite possibly crystalize the Pine tar inside?
 
Greg Aksdal said:

The area of Ga. that I live in was a big producer of turpentine, we have a turpentine festival here every year, http://portalheritagesociety.org/about.html

It's amazing all the things that tupentine was used in. http://www.valdosta.edu/turpentine/Stills1.htm

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Greg
Scroll Saw forum host

http://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/

Spalted Hard Maple Humidors

More spalted hard maple wood I worked up a couple humidors with back in 2005