I’ve spent a fair bit of this 4th of July break educating myself about woodworking - a couple of books, a whole shitload of YouTube videos. One unfamiliar term I came across (among several; see also: chamfer, spelching) was “spalted maple”. So I Googled it, like ya do, and according to Wikipedia spalting is “any form of wood coloration caused by fungi”. As one might expect, this has a generally negative effect on the wood itself - weakens it, softens it…too much fungus and you’ve basically got rotted sawdust. However, get “just enough” and it makes fantastically interesting patterns while leaving the wood in a relatively usable state. These patterns are highly sought after by woodworkers, and due to its relative rarity spalted wood can actually be significantly more expensive.

This put me in mind of Seth Godin’s “This is Broken” talk (which I probably reference entirely too much). He talks about a category of broken things entitled “Broken On Purpose” and one of the examples he gives are Jimmy Choo shoes, saying something along the lines of “Jimmy Choo shoes aren’t good at being shoes - they’re not for walking in, they’re for something else.”

Spalting is a sort of natural equivalent; wood that is objectively less-good at “being wood” - it’s rotted for chrissake - but the aesthetic that the rotting provides actually makes the wood more desirable to professional woodworkers than it would be otherwise.

At any rate, I didn’t only spend a whole bunch of time down the YouTube rabbithole…I also decided to get in a little hands-on time:

This is the first of two planters I made to go along the edge of our back patio. Now, I’d classify this project as less “woodworking” and more “construction”. We’re not talking dovetail joints and “chamfers” here - we’re more in the space of circular saws and 3” screws and sweating and cussing. (I’m certain woodworkers cuss…I’d be willing to bet they don’t cuss nearly as frequently or vehemently as construction workers. I’d also put forth a theory of strong positive correlation between sweating and cussing.)

I’m sore.

I’m sunburnt.

…I’m happy.

Maybe I would’ve also been happy (and sunburnt) lying on a beach somewhere, but man it was nice to have a week working on something I wanted to work on, For Me.

Anyhow, Happy Fourth y’all!