"Doug" wrote in message
ups.com...
Does anyone have any experience with spalted soft Maple. I can get
some rough cut air dried stuff, and I thought it might make an
interesting contrasting wood for a project that I plan to otherwise
make out of cherry and possibly white oak. I've never built anything
with constrasting woods before. Does this sound like good choices to
get a pleasing contrast? What is Spalted Maple like to work with?
Any comments would be appreciated.


Lots of "soft maple" types out there. Most common commercial in the east is
A rubrum, which spalts toward gray, with fairly large brown heartwood
lagging behind. In my experience, there is very little contrast between the
heartwood and something like cherry. So I'd look at the boards and choose
those with a minimum of heartwood, which is going to take a long time to
spalt anyway. You can then resaw and book the heartwood if you can't get
enough boards of pure sapwood. Works well, save where you can actually see
the white rot areas, where the lignin has been eaten away. It's lignin that
makes it wood rather than straw.

NB - if you're a molds allergy guy, protect yourself. There's plenty of
mycotoxin in the wood. Spores in the bark, if bark's still there.