I had 3 very large trees brought to the mill last summer. The man at the mill had sawing issues and could'nt get to cutting them until just the other day. When I arrived at the mill to pick up, the wood was obviously not like I have had sawn in the past.
It is heavily mineral stained like flames and is quite spalted now. I have only ever made 4 calls from spalted sycamore which Lonnie Gilbert had sent me. I read about stablized spalted wood but, would like to know the process or if it even needs stablizing. There is a ton of it on sticks waiting to bloom into calls/etc.
Is there much demand for spalted, mineral stained Sycamore?
Kip sounds like you got your self some fine wood as for spalted just like any depends how far its gone thur the spalting process and if it began to rot ,,Ive turned lots of calls from spalted wood that didn't need stabilized ,,,as for demand I would say there is
POST SOME PICS OF WHAT YA HAVE :icon_thumright:
Will take some pics and try to post some. Thanks Mike.
It depends on how far its gone but at the least you can have it stabilized and then it will really make some nice calls. Over on CCO someone was selling stabilizing vacuum pots. You put the wood and medium in then pull a vacuum to pull the resin into the wood. I think to get started it cost several hundred dollars for everything. I would see about finding someone to trade stabilizing it for some of the wood.
Sorry it took so long to get some pics up. I had this piece drying in the shop to accelerate drying from the outside stickered pile. I love it. What do you fellas' think? Put a few together and they sing nicely.
WOW, WOW, WOW!!! That's gorgeous!!!
You've got yourself some beautiful wood right there!!!!!
WOW! Is right!
That is some awesome looking wood!
Holy crap, those are beautiful!
I'm not a callmaker but have lots of calls and can say that is some awesome looking wood. IMO there would be lots of people interested in getting calls made from it.
I have made a few calls from spalted sycamore. Not as nice in appearance as what you have tho .....that stuff is SWEET! But from my work, I find it better for call bodies. Unless paired with something like cedar, a little too soft and unpredictable for my lids. JMO
I've got a spalted poplar hen box with an ebony lid from Richard Hudson that is bad news. Mike Battey wants me to will it to him when I die. ;D ;D Generally like firedup suggested softer wood for the box, harder wood for the lid is what I like in a call. However, I don't build them, just play them.