![]() ![]() In recent years, spalted wood has gained a vast, trendy reputation in woodworking projects, from guitar-making to furniture and even decorative wooden bowls.Īccording to woodworkers Suncatcher Studios, “The unique patterns and coloration of the spalting process can add value to wood which otherwise might have a low value.” Following this line, designers use spalted wood for stylish pieces like dressers or credenzas. According to the company, they also use spalted pieces for artistic value: “Our idea is to make the less colorful and interesting hardwoods, like bland Beech and Sycamore, more available and interesting to those in the visual arts.” For example, it was used in Italian Renaissances panel paintings. ![]() West & Sons write that spalted wood has a long history. These fungi are unafraid to set boundaries! Not so coincidentally, these are the most common spalting patterns within woodworking. Zone spalting, which appears as black lines with various levels of spacing, can also be a single mushroom defining itself. Instead, the shapes are drawn like battle lines - competing fungi within the wood create barricades of hardened mycelium to defend woody territory and resources. Unlike pigmentation or white rot, zone line spalting doesn’t require a specific mushroom species. If there are enough white pigments in the hyphae of the growing fungi, white rot may even leave a colored visual. White rot fungi consume lignin, leaving a stretched, psychedelic, marbling pattern in its wake. Pigmentation might be popular, but white rot patterning is more common. Like a white stain, the blue stain pigmentation comes from a high concentration in the hyphae walls of growing fungi. One of the most popular colors of wood that has been stained is blue. Pigmented spalt wood is high-value since it can take on unusual shades of pink or red, green, orange, black, yellow, or even purple. However, wood, where fungi have colonized and introduced a new color, is the most treasured. What draws folks to spalted wood is the change in pattern or grain. Recent research reveals that organisms like sugar maple and aspen are the preferred white rot and pigment fungi tree types. This is why it’s common to see hard maple or spalted beech wood with wild wavy patterns.īirchwood is another common type of spalted wood. While both deciduous hardwoods and coniferous softwoods can undergo this process, fungi - and the kind of spalting they induce - don’t occur evenly across all wood types.įor example, zone lines and white rot are more commonly found in hardwoods, which provide better conditions for the enzymes within white rotting fungi. Common types of wood species that become spalted Brown rot often isn’t used in woodworking or DIY spalting since it makes the material crumbly and highly unstable. ![]() This fungus is most common on conifers but can also grow among deciduous trees. Trametes Versicolor, or turkey tail mushrooms, are one such fungus that can create white pigmentation in spalted wood - but only if they don’t fruit.įinally, there are brown rot fungi, like Fistulina hepatica (beefsteak fungus). This is rare, as white pigmentation must be highly concentrated in the hyphae of the organism for it to show. However, some white rot varieties can create a similar visual effect. These mushrooms love to eat lignin, and the result is like a bleach stain pattern, less colorful than what pigmentation fungi create. Pigmentation fungi are primarily composed of the unclassified “imperfect” fungi group as well as ascomycetes. There are many types of spalting fungi, but they fall into only a few categories.įirst, there are pigmentation fungi, which grow and produce extracellular pigments internally within wood. Similarly, woodworkers looking to induce this punky pattern in non-natural methods must create and maintain these conditions and keep the temperature warm. Most natural spalting occurs in dead trees since decomposition leads to ample nitrogen and oxygen levels, a high moisture content, and an abundance of natural sugars. Instead, it takes a few conditions for it to occur. Spalting doesn’t happen to any old piece of wood. Instead, the fungal colony extracts nutrients from the biomaterial, leaving colors, dark lines, dots, and other patterns in the wood. It occurs when hungry fungi take over a piece of wood but don’t fruit. It’s different from the burl wood pattern (a growth unrelated to fungi) or the bore beetle patterning of ambrosia maple. Spalting is a type of pattern that occurs in wood grain due to the activity of fungi. But what is spalted wood, and how do you use it? What is spalting? Spalted wood is a trendy material that craftspeople worldwide are gravitating towards as its popularity has risen. If you’re interested in woodworking, interior design, or instrument making, you may have heard the term “spalted” before. ![]()
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