Brown Rot–The Enemy of Spalted Wood

Feb 6, 2010

Brown Rot–The Enemy of Spalted Wood

Nice spindle made from spalted wood (noricum/Flickr)

A while back I posted a piece on spalted wood, which is favored by woodworkers because of its interesting coloration and patterns. Finewoodworking.com recently posted an article, Spalt Your Own Lumber: Just Say No To Brown Rot!, discussing how brown rot fungi can ruin attempts at producing spalted wood.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about white rot – the fungi that cause bleaching and zone lines on spalted wood. What I haven’t talked much about, however, is white rot’s evil twin, brown rot. Brown rot grows primarily on conifers, while rot tends to prefer hardwoods. However, when presented with no other option, brown rots will grow on hardwoods, especially in spalting tubs!

Daedalea quercina causes a brown rot of oak (Joseph O'Brien, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org)

The problem arises because brown rot fungi create regions of crumbly wood that can rarely be machined into a quality piece. Not cool.

It might be hard to machine cleanly, and it no doubt has led to the ruin of many an otherwise nice wooden bowl, but brown rot pockets look pretty good in wood used for paneling.