Heavily Spalted Maple Bowl.

Click on image to see a larger version

Here I've turned this heavily spalted block of Maple into this amazing looking bowl. In this photo you can see the very center of the log and the concentric growth rings. For newbies, "spalting" is the beginning stage of wood rot, as fungi stake out claims inside the dead wood. The black lines are the perimeter of their colonies. The fungi also color the wood and can produce fade resistant colors in many shades. This wood was from a big Silver Maple we had cut down. I saved a section of that tree for 6 or 7 years before cutting into it. I got to it just in time because it was starting to get soft. I've gotten many nice pieces of wood from that chunk of tree.
This bowl measures 5.5 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high. It was wet sanded with mineral oil then a coat of boiled linseed oil was applied.