Spalted Plywood
So, I'm knocking around at the local big box, looking through a stack of birch plywood for a nice piece to make a bench hook and a shooting board (because, of course, you can't use just any old hunk of wood for just critical bench accessories), when I flip a 2×4 panel over and see this:
Now, I have to admit that I have never seen a piece of spalted wood in the flesh, but this sure looks like some of the pictures I have seen. I also have never heard of anything other than spalted maple, but I suppose there is no reason why fungus can't do the same job in other species.
But, in a piece of birch ply? Has anyone else ever run across this kind of thing?
Needless to say, they got double my money on the plywood today, as I had to buy the spalted piece and a regular piece-I just couldn't see myself using it for the bench hook.
I also spent a good half hour going through all the other birch ply that they had, but no luck.
So, I'm knocking around at the local big box, looking through a stack of birch plywood for a nice piece to make a bench hook and a shooting board (because, of course, you can't use just any old hunk of wood for just critical bench accessories), when I flip a 2×4 panel over and see this:
Now, I have to admit that I have never seen a piece of spalted wood in the flesh, but this sure looks like some of the pictures I have seen. I also have never heard of anything other than spalted maple, but I suppose there is no reason why fungus can't do the same job in other species.
But, in a piece of birch ply? Has anyone else ever run across this kind of thing?
Needless to say, they got double my money on the plywood today, as I had to buy the spalted piece and a regular piece-I just couldn't see myself using it for the bench hook.
I also spent a good half hour going through all the other birch ply that they had, but no luck.