I was at a local sawmill this week and grabbed about 20ft of hard maple. There is a fair bit that has some nice spalting in it that I think would look nice in a handle.

Does spalting compromise the strength of the wood at all?

Yes it does.

I thought it probably did. Thanks.

Spalting is fungal growth. For non-structural, non-stressed uses like handle risers or for under glass use it is usually OK.

Thank you Pat.

If you use spalted in a riser be careful as I had the limb bolt inserts tear out of a piece of spalted wood [Tasmanian Sassafras]

Stabalise it or don't use it in a riser.

X2 on stabilize it.

Just my opinion, but I like to use a riser wood that is harder than the lam material.  It's a gut thing with no factual support.

I would love to have a way to stabilize it but I am running out of room for the tools I want now, let alone adding another step...   :D

you can send it out for stabilization, a lot cheaper tha tooling up with vac pump etc- and is way better, as the big places can pull much higher vacuumes than a home unit can!

fujimo Where do send your wood out to? Most places I have seen are high priced.

I would suggest checking with Big Jim since he is a sponser as he is stabilizing wood and is already setup for the lenths we need. K&G knife suppy can stabilize wood for you and they do a great job. They do a lot of my hande material for knives.

Spalted is a fancy way of saying "partially rotten by fungus"...

LOL Ken..