spalted wood too far gone to save?

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mywoodshopca

mywoodshopca

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Charlottetown, PEI Canada, Derby Kansas and Canyon
Started cleaning up a large pile of wood that the previous owners used to use as a grass and leaf pile and under it I am finding a LOT of good size logs of maple and birch. Some are way too rotted to even think about, but others are somewhat solid like these..

Are these saveable? Or would I be using $50 worth of CA on each blank? :biggrin:
 

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Jason,
If it's punky, spongy, etc. it may not be worthwhile to save, but on the other hand you say it's Maple and Birch, cut it up and give it go. You will never know until you fire the saw up. Probably best to use a respirator, the spalting may affect your sinuses (I sneezed up some nasty stuff the last time I tried this).
 
DurocShark said:
I think you need to just send it to me. It's too rotted for you.

;-)
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I got plenty :biggrin:.. but I shipping would be a killer? I am having someone come in a few days to haul off what I dont want for them to use as firewood. Some of the wood was sitting under a pile of leaves, its black now.

There is about 10ft of this stuff at least 8 inches thick.. And I am sure there is more hiding under the "other" pile..

Seems that everyone in the neighborhood with houses facing the woods tend to dump all their leaves and stuff INSTEAD of using fall cleanup in the woods behind the property.. I am going to get ours cleaned up since I would like it accessable..
 
cnirenberg said:
Jason,
If it's punky, spongy, etc. it may not be worthwhile to save, but on the other hand you say it's Maple and Birch, cut it up and give it go. You will never know until you fire the saw up. Probably best to use a respirator, the spalting may affect your sinuses (I sneezed up some nasty stuff the last time I tried this).
Click to expand...

Some areas are spongy, I may set this stuff aside and see what else is hiding under the pile :biggrin:

I also dug up a maple stump and the whole thing was spalted.. pretty stuff too lol
 
I don't know that I would burn rotted wood indoors. I'd be skeerd of something nasty getting in the air I breathe.

Though I have no problem using spatulas made from ambrosia maple. I'm schizophrenic and so am I.
 
mywoodshopca said:
Started cleaning up a large pile of wood that the previous owners used to use as a grass and leaf pile and under it I am finding a LOT of good size logs of maple and birch. Some are way too rotted to even think about, but others are somewhat solid like these..

Are these saveable? Or would I be using $50 worth of CA on each blank? :biggrin:
Click to expand...
Minwax Wood Hardener!!
 
Save yourself some money. Just cut it up into blanks, drill a small hole down the middle and stick them in a one gallon paint can filled with a plexiglass and acetone mix. Let it stay in there for a month or two (gently shaking it occasionally) and then pull them out and allow them to dry for a week. You should wind up with some very nice blanks. Or you can send some down to me for it.
 
mywoodshopca said:
Seems that everyone in the neighborhood with houses facing the woods tend to dump all their leaves and stuff INSTEAD of using fall cleanup in the woods behind the property..
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'd do in that situation. But I'd build a small cage out
of chicken wire to dump the leaves in. Let that sit a season or two?
You couldn't buy better compost .. in fact, gardeners would beat a path
to your door to buy it
 
NewLondon88 said:
That's exactly what I'd do in that situation. But I'd build a small cage out
of chicken wire to dump the leaves in. Let that sit a season or two?
You couldn't buy better compost .. in fact, gardeners would beat a path
to your door to buy it
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Been busy at the piles.. have it all shifted up now and its actually starting to look like mulch (still lots of small sticks and leaves in it though) but going to use it to even out the hills and valleys that grow around the trees there in the woods.. so I should be able to clean the piles up without hauling to the dump like I origionally thought I would need to do.. a few hours with a chainsaw and all the bigger branches are now small kindlings ready to rot away :wink:
 
The worst of your rotting is down through the pith. The pith is junk rotten or not. What you want is the meat about 2-3 inches out from the center depending the diameter of your log of course. Nothing is every junk or un-fixable. I wouldn't bother salvaging everything though, because It looks like you have enough logs there for a thousand or more pens, which I don't think you'll ever get to making....just trying to be a bit sensible.
 
I have made pens from branches that started out like that (may even have a pic in my photos) Makes pretty pens. I cut mine into blanks and first turned carefully down a bit and then ran thin CA over them. Turn some more and CA again, etc.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but,,,,,,,,,I have heard of folks casting "worthless wood" in alumilite white casting resin. It is near water consistancy and under vacuum and pressure should get all the way through the wood. I am headed over to Alumilite tomorrow to pick some of that resin up to do exactly that kind of cast. Otherwise, I harden one blank at a time with CA glue. Be sure to trim the blanks close to the ends of the tubes and then saturate the ends with CA before barrel triming them. Sometimes it takes a couple of applications. Otherwise the fit to the pen assemblies will sometimes be a little ragged. I turn a boat load of spalted maple, and have 1000's of blanks on hand. Also when I turn this wood I turn down close to finish size and depending on the degree of tearout start soaking the blanks down with CA glue before final turning. It is easiest to finish to deminsion with a step up in sandpaper grits. (Corse to fine) I find that maples finish well to about 3600 Micro mesh as the last grit. I rarely go finer.
 
something I have been going to try is to cut and drill the blanks (carefully) then soak them for several days in a 50/50 solution of white glue and water.
I also have some punky wood that is quite nice should you manage to a pen out of it. And once finished it appears quite solid. The tools have to be scary sharp and applied with a very light touch.
I do not use CA because you have to keep applying it after several cuts. Besides, it makes the finished pen too expensive.
 
Try ultraseal. Don't burn the wood though...the spalting is fungus and burning it will release toxins in the air.....very bad for you (unless it's in an enclosed wood stove where the smoke only goes outside).
 
Paul Downes said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but,,,,,,,,,I have heard of folks casting "worthless wood" in alumilite white casting resin. It is near water consistancy and under vacuum and pressure should get all the way through the wood. r.
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uh...I don't think this is going to work out that way Paul. The wood might be punky and/or rotten, but I don't see the alumilite white or clear doing very much pentetration. The punky holes are still aweful small, and if the alumilite could penetrate under a vacuum, there wouldn't be enough time to get it done before the resin hardened. Alumilite isn't really a product that you vacuum and then pressurize..you just use pressure and work fast. A plexiglass/acetone mix is what you would vaccuum into it. Now I could be wrong, but I cast with alumilite all the time, cast all sorts of things, and alumilite sticks and penetrates pretty good to a lot of stuff, but I haven't found it to penetrate right through soft objects like rotting wood.
 
Cleaned up the logs more, split them so they can fit through my 9" BS and picked up a new blade for it, there was a few with very punky spots, but overall, a lot of it seems pretty solid.. 60% shouldnt need any ca or anything, about 30% will need something like CA and about 10% will need something more then CA..
 
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