Over the holiday weekend I spent some time with my wife’s family in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Their homes are surrounded by acres of heavily wooded hills. There is a lot of downed timber in these hills, what would I look for in the way of wood that might be useful for woodworking? One question in particular, how can you tell if a downed tree is starting to decompose or is spalted? Do you have to split it open to check? Can you see it from cutting a cross section from the tree? Would you just remove a small wedge to check for spalting? Is there anything I should watch for to avoid (certain insects or odd colored rot)?
Any help would be appreciated. There must be someone here who goes out hunting for such things, or books/websites dedicated to finding spalted wood.
Thanks everyone!
Jeff
Replies
Hello I have read many articals on this subject.From what I have read there is no sure way to tell if it is spaulted other than cutting thru the tree.I can't tell how many opinions I have gotten on this subject ,but that was what the majority suggested.I live on a mountain in NC most of the year and boy did I get lucky 2 yrs ago.I found this very large maple right on top of that mountain and it had this huge growth around the bottom and it was almost washed out under the tree.It was on the egde of a gully.So I wacked it down and low and behold I now habe a VERY BIG stack of spaulted and some beautifull burl wood.One suggestion is if you think this could be spaulted wood where a good respirator as this is not a good dust to put in your lungs.I am 63 and I had to climb that darn mountain 3 diferent time before I got it down.That was fun.Well so much for my big runaway chatterbox mouth.Good luck and have a very happy new year.
Ken
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled