Rookie Mill Mistake

[jtdums]

In preparing for the onslaught of the christmas season, I have been turning out a multitude of pepper mills in an attempt to please everyone on my list.

Here is my problem. I turned a mill out of spalted maple that is quite striking, only to realize that I turned a food item out of a spalted wood.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the matter since I seem to have clouded my brain with thoughts of sugar plums and not good wood sense.
Thanks for your imput.

 

[MichaelMouse]

It's only as safe as the person who purchases it thinks it is. Check out the list of deadlies in the contained pepper and consider how robust something would have to be to survive such treatment.

Don't drink out of it.

 

[terry q]

If you are really worried about it coat the inside with a couple coats of shellac.

 

[Bill Grumbine]

We've been eating out of an unfinished spalted maple salad bowl since 2001, and nthing hs hapned to mee or anione else in h family...

Ha ha, not really, we're all fine. The big problem with spalted wood is breathing the dust and ingesting spores into your lungs. Digesting them shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Charlie Harley]

Umm... I'll add another new guy question here:

What is the danger of turning a food item out of spalted wood? I know that spalt is caused by early stages of decay. Is there some sort of bacteria associated with spalt?

I turned several pairs of salt/pepper shakers from spalted maple. They're gorgeous and I'd hate to have to turn them into decorations.

Given all the different sources of bacteria, how can spalted wood cause any extra problems?

 

[jtdums]

Saved by the pro's.
Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

 

[MichaelMouse]

I'll defer to the real pros in these matters whose data are presented at www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/producing_spalted_wood.pdf and note that inhalation of spores is unavoidable if you handle the piece for preparation, as the fruiting bodies are in and under the bark, not in the wood. Fortunately, fungi specialized to eat lignin over millions of years of evolution or a moment of intelligent design are not going to prosper on lipids, the stuff of your cells.

With dust it's not the cellulose, it's the other baggage that can harm you. In the case of spalted wood it's the toxins the fungi produce to kill bacteria that might otherwise feed on them. Think of antibiotics. With other woods it's the insecticides and fungicides used to secure the support of the heartwood that can cause a reaction. Thus the admonition not to leach it out by drinking out of it. Without knowing for sure, I'm going to bet that some of the tropical woods are much more likely to give trouble than limited areas containing mycotoxins in spalted wood.

None of which means much to those who get their information and inclination from less-documented sources or that indisputable expert, the "guy my friend talked to," which is why some will shy away from spalted containers. As I said, the list of harmful chemicals in pepper would scare a thinking man to death, until he thought of the dosage, and the body's reaction to an overdose, which is a sneeze to clear the mucosa or the heaves to get the burning out of the stomach.

 

[Barry Elder]

Spalted Mills

I agree with Michael. You can't get much more accurate documentation than that from the Forest Products Lab

If you still don't feel sure about using spalted wood, ship it to me!

 

[Joe Fisher]

We've been eating out of an unfinished spalted maple salad bowl since 2001, and nthing hs hapned to mee or anione else in h family...

Heh, all I can think of is Steve Martin in the Man with Two Brains when she puts the brain in the oven.

-Joe

 

[Charlie Harley]

Thank you for the links and thoughts. It looks like I'll be keeping my spalted wood and joyously turning it into holiday cheer for all my friends!