Spalting 101

Book excerpt: Stop pouring beer on your wood! Take your spalting time from years to hours in this detailed DIY guide to spalting wood. No more beer, mayonnaise, leaves, and blind hope. Instead, this guide gives you the specific instructions you need for successfully inducing spalting in wood. Learn how to get amazing colors and lines while minimizing time and decay, whether you're working with green to dry timber, inside conditions or out, with zone lines or pigment, and more. A basic explanation of wood structure and fungal anatomy explains the whys behind the transformations. Next, learn the different types of spalting and their temperature/moisture content preferences, time frames, and how to make your own fungal pigments. This comprehensive guide debunks myths and offers detailed guidelines for every type of spalting, including laboratory level spalting in just one hour.