Beech is the classic candidate for spalting, but catch it a month too late and you end up turning something that feels like wet cardboard. When caught at the right stage, it offers a canvas of pale straw tones crisscrossed with black zone lines, and textured with a pattern more complex than the grain is visually.
It turns easily enough, though the boundary where the fungus has softened the grain can be tricky to clean up without tear-out. A soak of sanding sealer or thin CA glue on the softer patches usually tames it, but I prefer the slow, light approach which takes a while but means natural waxes or oils can be used for finishing.
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