How Gorgeous Is This...

It almost looks like marble. Very Nice. I'm sure it's a very expensive wood.

Mine is in the mail!!! I love my walnut one. This one will have my Fugio Cent in it.[:p]Mike

SFDukie are you out there? I brought this back up hoping you could see the diversity in what I am doing with different woods. Spaulted Maple is one of my favorite woods due to its marble like appearance but can be very difficult to work with as some boards are very unstable especially if you are turning on a lathe. If it stays together there is nothing like it!

You will hear the words spaulted and ambrosia a lot around woodworkers. Spault is caused by bugs damaging the tree and leaving a little poo-poo behind which causes further decay. Basically it would be to bring down the tree before the decay renders it useless. It is my understanding, at this time, there are folks in the lumber industry actually introducing insects to create the damage, keeping track of the time since introduction and taking the tree down stictly for the spaulted look. The prices that some heavily spaulted woods are bringing, especially if it is still stable enough to work with, is almost astounding so I understand why one may want to hurry the whole process up a bit. Almost like killing something but stopping the process just in time to preserve what is left? There are many factors involved in spaulted lumber but insects are the number one culprit as, after they burrow in to set up shop, the door is open for anything else that may want to enter, such as a little fungus or ect... I love the finished product but as a wood worker who has also turned spaulted maple you NEVER want to lose track of what you are doing as it can be very prone to coming apart and on a lathe that is like a small bomb blowing up in your face! With these slabbed coin holders it amounts to just finding a stable piece, cutting, sanding, little glue and finishing. The end results are far worth the wait!
I just worked on another project this week in which I used red cedar and didn't even notice until I was done that there is a very distingushed image of a dog's face on the front. The cedar has lots of knots, which made the eyes and nose, and traces of yellow which formed the outline and hair right up to the left ear! Really an unbelievable look but its headed to California I believe! Didn't even see it until I applied the finish and then WOW!!!