Spalted Wood question

[cnccutter]

I was looking at a great spalted pen in another forum by Laurner and got to wondering about a possibility of cross contamination between woods in the shop. we all have a good selection of wood to choose from and I for one would be pretty unhappy if something got going in my stash that i didn't want, or wasn't in control of.

question..... do any of you take precautions?

would stabilizing take care of controlling spalting?

 

[1080Wayne]

The spalting fungi require fairly a high moisture level to work . The process has stopped by the time the wood is dry . So , don`t store green wood too close to dry wood . I believe stabilizing would only be done on dry wood , so the fungi would no longer be active . It would probably prevent the fungi from restarting , should the wood get wet again .

 

[Fred]

Spalting is the beginning process that is part of 'rotting.' Moisture is definitely necessary for the process to function.

Drying the wood halts the process, yet many species of spores can, and often do, respond to being re-hydrated. Breathing of these spores is often times a very bad thing for us humans, especially anyone that has any respiratory problems already present.

Stabilizing is a very good idea for spalted wood since the wood is being decomposed so to speak and is therefore somewhat softened. Also, stabilized woods if done properly do not tend to absorb water or airborne moisture. One should be better protected from any type of spore contamination when using stabilized woods.

I would definitely recommend having spalted wood stabilized prior to use to prevent the many problems that often accompany these woods while they are being used.