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I have a big Silver Maple tree in my yard. A few years ago we had this tree trimmed away from the house, and that involved some pretty big branches. I saved a 3 foot long section of a nine inch thick log from that job. It sat under that tree until now . . . actually, a little too long. It was on the ground, which allowed the termites to get at it. This wood was actually sitting on a pile waiting to be burned. I thought it was a lost cause. On a whim, I took a saw to it just to see how bad the insect damage was. To my surprise, there was a lot more log untouched by the insects than I thought. The spalting inside was incredible! I had to save some of this wood. I ended up cutting that entire log up into bowl sized blocks with a hand saw! I couldn't get my chainsaw started. I ended up with about a half dozen bowl blanks and some other smaller pieces that might end up as canisters or boxes.
I made this bowl with my three new lathe tools that I made myself. A medium size and a small round carbide tipped gouge and also a medium square one. They work great. And I don't have to sharpen them!
The spalting in this wood is more extensive than the last batch I had (from the same kind of tree but the wood was way older and almost rotten). The wood was in better shape than the last batch; not as punky (soft and crumbly, kind of spongey). The piece of wood I used to make this bowl had some minor insect damage in it, but it's barely noticeable. To me this looks like a cross between wood and marble. Even close up, it looks like some kind of stone.
Expect to see a few more items made with this cool looking wood.
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