Spalted beech suitability

[nicguthrie]

Just a quick question, that I've intended to ask for weeks, but life got in the way.

Is spalted beech (or sycamore) suitable wood for a chopping board?

I'd assumed spalting would be bad near food, at least damp food, and given up on making a chopping board for friends when I found that the wood I had set aside (Sycamore) had some light spalting throughout.

But while I was still sourcing some nice other wood, they were gifted a (very beautiful) spalted beech one by another friend, from a shop... Was I wrong?

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[Phil Pascoe]

Besides anything else, I wouldn't have thought it would last two minutes.

 

[Alexam]

The spalting would be a weakness and contain all sorts of 'stuff' that had been drawn up it. I doubt it would be suitable from a health and safety point, but I also love that timber as it is so attractive.

 

[Woodmonkey]

I believe that the bacteria that cause the spalting die when the timber is dried out (once the wood is bought indoors further spalting does not occur) so I would think it would be fine, as long as it's not spalted to the point when the wood starts to lose its integrity

 

[dickm]

Hmm. I would be cautious using this near food. The spalting is fungal, and fungal metabolites include some pretty nasty things*. Without knowing the precise species involved in the actual log, better to be safe than sorry.

*and, of course, some valuable things like antibiotics. But the general point still stands.

 

[Sean Hellman]

Not a problem, unless parts of the wood are too soft. I have been making bowls for years on the pole lathe from spalted beech and have had some spalted plates for over 7 years which are used daily. I see no problem with chopping boards unless too spalted. Most houses are very dry and very warm, the wood dries pretty quickly once washed.

 

[nicguthrie]

Seems the community is split in the same way I was thinking.

Bacteria, fungi and grot in the spalted areas vs dryness mitigating it's danger, and the appeal of it's extraordinary beauty.

I've always thought it was one of the most spectacular woods one can buy in Britain, from Britain.

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[AndyT]

My sister gave me a nice little spalted chopping board she bought at a craft fair and I've felt no ill effects.
Mind you, I've not used it much :wink:.

 

[Shrubby]

I would check it's not a fungal pathogen
Matt

 

[dickm]

My worry would not be the fungi themselves, which would indeed be killed, or at least rendered dormant or in spore form, by a dry atmosphere. The danger could be any metabolites they had left behind in the wood, which may not be inactivated by dryness. Fungi can produce some pretty nasty things, including a lot of recognised carcinogens.
In addition, chopping boards inevitably get wet, which could activate any spores to set off new fungal growth.
Still firmly in the "use spalted timber for decorative purposes only" camp.

 

[dickm]

Went to a lecture last night by two medical experts in fungus/health matters (apparently Aberdeen has the biggest research group on that topic in the UK). Asked their opinion on the hazards of spalted timber for chopping boards, and got two answers! One said "no problem", as the fungal metabolites likely to be present are a reponse to inter-specific fungal competition, not for defence against mammals. And in any case they are not really soluble in water but need quite aggressive solvents to bring them into solution. She also claimed that there was no epidemiological evidence of any ill-health occasioned by using spalted woods with foodstuffs. So one vote for OK.
BUT.... her senior colleague said "Ooooh, I'd be very careful- some of those toxic metabolites are cumulative so we may not discover problems for some years!.
So I'm still confused, but at a higher level!