Thanks everone for your such kind replies.
The choice of finish I've used is a 'general finishes- danish oil-natural.I use X 10 coats of that with 24 hours inbetween each coat and a rub down with fine wire wool. Then two coats of a beeswax paste wax on top to finsh. Its buffed with a lamps wool mop aswell. This a bit over the top, as I normally just use the oil and do about 5 coats.
Spalted wood is both a wonderful and unforgiving wood to work with. You have to catch it at the right momment, to earlier and it looks just dirty and dull, too late and its mush. Some of the woods that spalt well are, soft maple, beech, birch, ash, oak(sometimes) and Alder.
My table has a large soft patch which I have to deal with. The text books say you should flood it with super glue. This works on the small scale but it was impractical in this case. So for the first two coats of finish I used a 50/50 mix of danish oil and white sprit. It soaks it all up. I used about 1/3 of a gallon of finish!!!
In terms of using spalted for inlayed key, it really depends. I wouldn't use them if they were under massive stresses. Mine on the coffee table were made out of some beech that wasn't discoloured but had nice ink lines. This norally means that the wood is sound. Also I made them about an inch deep, so there nice and chunky.
Hi Charlieh, not far from me then, I use to live in leek. What set up you running? If your ever in derby, email me.
p.s sorry if I'm waffling abit. Tom
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