Small pot from found wood

Hallelujahal · 21 Jun 2021

Whilst walking the dog this morning I came across some some bits of wood that had been cut down and discarded. By the amount of time it’d spent lying in the undergrowth I guess it’d been there at least a year. The bark was totally wrapped in ivy. Anyway I took it home and endeavoured to cut it up into useable bits. Not an easy job. Anyways, as you can see from my pathetic effort I’m totally new to this wood turning malarkey - however, I thought I’d try and turn a small pot for the missus (brownie points and all that) and I’d love to know what the wood is?

Jonzjob · 22 Jun 2021

It looks like spalted beech.

When you are turning any spalted wood you reall must wear a good dust mask as the spalting is fungus breaking the wood down. When you turn it the spores are released and are definitely not good for you! I love turning it.

I love it because you never know what the spalting is going to be like until you stop the lathe and it can be quite spectacular! This is spalted plane, with a bit of pyrography in it.

Hallelujahal · 22 Jun 2021

Oh dear, I mislaid my mask yesterday so turned it without —-

Thanks for that comment though. And I must admit that I too thought it might be beech...mask found now

Kind regards
Al

Jonzjob · 27 Jun 2021

That was a lesson I learned about 24 years back, just after I has started turning. I had joined a turners club locally when we lived in Stroud. I only went to one meeting after joining and took what I thought was a lovely spalted goblet and put it on the bring and comment table. One of the 'experts' doing the comments on the table content picked it up and just said "Huh, whoevre made this? i hope he was wearing a good mask" Then put it down as if it were dirty. At the end I went up to the vloke and told him I had turned it and was just a starter and if that was the way newbees were welcomed to the club he could stick it and never went back again.

I was not impressed by some of the stuff the expert picked up a liked! After that I had a weekend course on box turning with ian Wilkie and still have the smock and 1/2" skew chisel he gave me.

Since then, if you get as much pleasure as I have in the years I've been turning then you will be a happy bloke

KimG · 27 Jun 2021

Actually the spalting does not contain spores, nor is it particularly hazardous, the spores of any fungus are produced by the fruit body, most tree rotting fungi are of the bracket type (Turkey tail, dryads saddle, Birch polypore, beefsteak etc) all have the fruit bodies on the outer part of the tree so that the spores (which are produced in the tubes or gills depending on species) are free to disperse. However, that does not mean it is a good idea to turn without a mask, the dust from the timber is no less hazardous to your health, whether it is spalted or not.
This isn't my own interpretation mind you, I too wondered about the safety of spalting, but I watched a video by Dr Sara Robinson (I am trying to find the exact one, there are quite a lot) where she was demonstrating and talking about all aspects of spalting, and of course, the audience asked this very question, her reply was pretty much what I have put here, she seems to know what she's talking about.

Sara Robinson on spalting

Hallelujahal · 27 Jun 2021

Thanks for info, very interesting, I’m a raw beginner so am making loads of mistakes as I go - I’d really like to go on a proper course and learn how to turn but YouTube is proving quite helpful at the moment.