Spalted Maple Threaded Box

I have a small farm that was part of my great Aunt Bea’s tenant farm. Yes, I have an Aunt Bea. My father, who is in his late 60’s lives across the street (this has it’s pros and cons). A couple of years ago I was turning in my shop when he pulled up in the gator (farm utility vehicle) and I noticed a 4-5” diameter branch in the back bed. Apparently, the branch had been hanging down over his favorite gator path to the back side of the farm so he took a bow saw to it. As I glanced over at the branch I noticed that it was spalted. In previous conversations my father had questioned why anyone would pay money for a spalted piece of wood. I seized the opportunity to demonstrate how beautiful a turned object could be made from a spalted piece of wood.

I picked up the bow saw and whacked off a 6” length of the branch. It wasn’t “punky”, Yeah!!!!

I placed the tiny log between centers on the lathe and began the process of making a lidded box. I had just gotten my new threading jig from “BestWood Tools” so had to make the box a threaded box. Once I had parted off the lid section, I used my handy dandy moisture meter to make sure the branch was dry enough to make a threaded lidded box. Even through the wood wasn’t punky, making threads like this requires a little bit of super glue to give the delicate threads some additional strength and stability. The tricky part is getting the grain spalting to line up when the lid is threaded on to its stop.

Once I had completed the box, aligned the grain and placed a HUT rub finish on it my father’s response was, “Oh so that’s why people pay for spalted wood. That’s really great. What would someone pay you for that.” Typical.