wordaday

I was at a craft show the other day where a woodworker using a lathe had made exquisite boxes and lamps out of what he said was “spalted maple.” Now, I’d never heard of a maple species named that, and was about to ask him when he showed me another piece that he said was “spalted,” but wasn’t maple. So of course I had to ask him what spalted meant.

“Spalted means it’s just started to rot. The wood isn’t soft yet, but the rot has colored the wood.”

I went home and looked up spalted. I had to resort to the OED; spalt and its relatives weren’t in the AHD. The OED offers

To split, tear, splinter, etc. To become spalted. 1977 Fine Woodworking Summer 51/1 “Apple spalts, but oh boy does it crack!”

Hence spalting vbl. n.

You can’t quite tell from the OED, but spalting or spalted in the context of woodworking means wood that has been affected by fungi, specifically white rot fungi, and hyphae fungi. They cause white discolored areas like those in the picture to the left, but sometimes, they add pigment to the wood, often blue. Spalted wood, because of the patterns created by the fungi, is often quite lovely, and used very effectively in lamps, furniture, and decorative woodworking of all kinds. Lighter colored woods—maple, birch and apple—are more likely to be spalted. You can read more about it here.