We sell two types of spalted wood: native spalted wood and sustainably harvested tropical spalted wood.
Native Spalted Wood
Spalted turning blanks (bowl and pen) are available for purchase through Oregon State University. Below is a list of what is currently available, and what is ‘cooking’ so you can plan your shopping accordingly.
Wood is available for pick up only. To schedule a day to come by and see all the goodies, please e-mail me. Note – these are research pieces, and awesomeness of spalt is not guaranteed. Prices are $10 per piece, regardless of size.
Native spalted wood available:
– turning blanks in a menagerie of woods, all with moderate white rot and some blue stain (ideal for dyeing with fungal pigments)
Tropical Spalted Wood
We source tropical woods through Inkaterra Association in Peru, in the region I visit ever summer to do fungal collections. They collect downed wood from the forest floor that is spalted (no trees are ever cut for this from the Amazon rainforest), dry it, and send it to us. Sales from this wood go directly back to the NGO. These funds provide resources to the local woodworkers of the region, and help give additional value to Amazonian lands. This is very important, as right now only about five species in the rainforest are thought to be economically viable, and the rest of the forest is though to mostly be waste. By giving value to downed wood that, in their minds, is decayed and useless, we actually give NGOs a reason to leave the forests standing, instead of converting the land to agriculture.
While we hope our supplier list grows, right now you can purchase the tropical spalted woods through the Eugene, Oregon Woodcraft. Call and ask for Joe. He knows right where there are. We have boards and turning blanks coming, but right now, in store, there are pen blanks available.
If you want to see how the money you spend is used, join our spalting Facebook group. Alexander Coiccycca is the woodworker and budding woodturner in residence at ITA, and would be happy to share photos of his work and talk about how the money from the wood sales and the prestige of working with woodworkers from countries where woodworking is more than ‘just a trade’, is changing lives.
