Stinking Ole Sickymore

[dail_h]

   I called the guy at Woodcraft the other day ,to see how they got along with the gum turning blocks. "They REALLY liked them" He was askin me if I had any other hardwoods,I mentioned the hickory,and said " one ole rotten sickymore from Isabell".He asked if I would try & saw some blocks out of it . Long story short,got a loadof that,plus I found a piece of boxelder i had forgot I had.
   Them guys is as bad slobberin over half rotten wood as some of us are over ole rusty iron.Each man his own poision  I reckon.
   Some of it was pretty far gone,and they were shorthanded on Sat. morning,so we'll get the count later this week.

     All from one little buisness card

[Frank_Pender]

DAil, isn't great!   

[Larry]

      Them guys is as bad slobberin over half rotten wood as some of us are over ole rusty iron.Each man his own poision  I reckon.
       All from one little buisness card

Got a load of spalted QS sycamore coming out of the kiln in the next week iffen ya run out.  Don't know if the turners like dry wood.

[Frank_Pender]

Dail, I have eight of them still in log for and waiting to have them spalt.   Another 4 months or so.

[Kirk_Allen]

I sold two chunks of Spalted Sugar Maple to Woodcraft in Chicago last year. 
Each peice was 10/4 and 16W X 20"L 5.5 BF for $50.00 each for an awsome $9.09 per BF of what was going to be firewood until I thought to myself, some city slicker is going to buy this, I just know it.

Ready for the CRAZY part   Woodcraft sold each peice for $100.00

Now they were good looking pieces but they were not worth no $18.00 bf

[Frank_Pender]

Yes they were, as someone bought them for tht kind of money.

[dail_h]

   Mine was a little more economical than that,but I had written the log off as probably rotten ,so any is a bonus. To each his own ,but spalt ain't all that purdy ta me ,"cept'n when I'm sellin

[rebocardo]

> but they were not worth no $18.00 bf

They were to someone that was going to turn it into a $600 something :-)

[dail_h]

   An y'all jest remember,ya can't just walk in anywhere,an buy a piece of spalted sickymore,'specily one cut by me on" Nevermiss'

[SwampDonkey]

Heck Kirk, there's a fellow up here getting $3 or 4 grand for that stuff turned, even more with some birds eye mixed in. That green stain in yellow birch spalted wood is a gold mine, trouble is it turns brown when not finished with flaxseed oil or something enviro friendly. It still darkens some. I'm no expert on turning and finishing by a long shot.

[Dale Hatfield]

 Can ya  tell me what size a bowl blank is. or how its sawn from  the log.
I have a turning friend that has  made me a few things. I need to return the favor.

Dale

[metalspinner]

A bowl blank can be any size really. Turners are not to particular on dimensions.  A good place to start is 6 inches square by 2 -3 inches thick.  4" is the max I turn on a 6" square.  The same rules apply for turning stock that are used for lumber - No pith or juvenile wood.  Bark inclusions are great.  Grub holes are better.  The larger you go on blanks the more you can charge a  BF!  Mill the log as if sawing 12/4 lumber then cross cut into blanks and seal each end with Anchor seal.  I don't have good luck keeping those thick boards from splitting, but cut into blanks they do great.


  This is also a piece of Sycamore.  The grubs were the size of my middle finger!  This should make for an interesting turning.
Dail,  Good going on the Woodcraft  connection.  My local WC low-balls everything and sells as cheap as possible.

[Dale Hatfield]

It might be me but the sickymore looks like a half log.
Worm holes are cool . I love to carve  worm ridden wood. I will let my pine logs sit  till they good and wormy for i carve em..

So back to the blanks.
The blank  cant have any  sapwood.  Then it can't have pith ( just no hollow pith wood)
  / or can it have heart wood?
 Thanks Dale

[metalspinner]

Dale,
  Sap wood is fine for most things.  In fact a mix of heart and sap can make for an interesting turrning.  There are times when one would want just heart (walnut) or just sap (maple).   But a mix of both is cool too.  The sap in walnut will spalt and is not found in the retail market place.  If you have any in the slab wood pile someone with a lathe will pay you for it.
 
  One thing I didn't mention were spindle squares. 3 -4" thick are good for table legs and such.  Shorter pieces in the 3 -6" thick and 8 -12" long are good for vases.  Turner's use every little bit of interesting wood they come across.  Do you have spalted stickers kicking around?  They make great pen turning stock.
  The pith and the first couple of inches around the pith (juvenile wood) are no good to turners because of their dimensional instability.
  BTW, That half log is now bowl blanks.  And there were still some large grubs in the middle of it when I cut it up.  I hope they are all out by the time I fire it up on the lathe!

[Dale Hatfield]

Cleaux
I seam to remember reading somewhere. That you could spalt your own wood. something about  cow manure, fallen leaves, contents of one  perfetly good beer can. and  place in a bag  and wait.  Im not sure if thats right or a waste of beer.

Ill have to get a few blanks sawn. I have some box alder that could be spalted ill have to  slab a few and see what come from them.

Tanks for all the great info
Dale

[Larry]

I’m hear to say it is impossible to spalt your own wood unless ya have the secret recipe which I ain’t gonna reveal.  Course if I like ya and you have lotsa gold might loosen my tongue a bit.








And in case your interested there might be a picture or three in my gallery of sawing spalted wood.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=191

[dail_h]

   Been on an adventure for a coupla days,trying to catch up. The blocksthat I cut were 6x 12 12 ,and 6x6x6. The boxelder that I took,I just cut 6in thick,and let them cut as they wanted to,I didn't want to mess up the grain. I just cut enough off the bark side to get about a 3 or 4in face,and drop 6in,make my cut,flip and repeat.
   While I was in Raliegh today,I stopped by the Woodcraft store there(I saw it from the motel lobby when getting coffee this morning)May have somethimg REAL interesting to report from there in a few days

[SwampDonkey]

My brother took my spalted yellow birch stash when I wasn't look'n and had a gun cabinet make. Looks kinda like Larry's second picture. Around here all ya gotta do is leave a yellow birch for 6 months in the heat with the bark on it and you'll have all kinds of spalt, no work to it at all.

[Striker]

I sealed some spalted Sycamore bowl blanks last week.I looked at them today  and they are turning black on the faces. I was hoping to sell them but the discoloration makes it difficult to se the grain. What could be causing this to happen, and how do I prevent it from happening again?

Jeff

[Tom]

Black is color of mildew.

It might be what you sealed them with.

I would be tempted to scrape a little off of the face and see if the color is going into the wood or just on the surface.

If it is a fungus, heat or a fungicide/mildicide will kill it.  Just make sure you use something that the turner won't be afraid to use the piece for food.   You might have to reseal the wood.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm pretty sure that is just on the surface of that spalted wood. Plane off a board and you'll have the marble streaks back.

[Striker]

I sealed the blanks with Bailey's end sealer. Some of my boxelder blanks are showing it too.

Jeff

[dad2nine]

Few things I learned about turning blanks: Keep a few inches away from the pith (no blocks with pith) and keep em 6" or under in thickness. Most wood working band saws will only cut a 6" max thick chunk, they cut em round before the stick em on the lathe. Sap wood is ok, even a little bark, but it fetches less than ones that are clean (no sap / bark). Seal the entire block with Ancoseal, theres a fine line between good and spalted and rotten and no good for nothing  .