Exotic Wood sycamore

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SYCAMORE

Platanus spp.

A note on the confusion among the names lacewood, leopardwood, planetree, and sycamore
I am not fully confident that I have totally sorted all of this out properly, so take what I say with a grain of salt and my apologies if I've gotten any of it wrong, although how the hell anyone would ever KNOW if I've gotten any of it wrong is beyond me, since the multitudinous reports are so contradictory that deriving what you see here REALLY made my head hurt.

lacewood: in the USA, this term is generally, and most accurately, used to refer to any of:

Cardwellia sublimia (also reported as sublimis) of the family Proteaceae [the same family as South American lacewood], which also has the common name (Australian) silky oak, which is its common designation in most of the world outside the USA. In the USA it is called lacewood or Australian lacewood
Platanus hybrida of the family Platanaceae, the plane or sycamore family, which also has the common name "European plane" but is NOT the wood that is normally meant by "Europan plane" (more on that below) and is also called European lacewood. This wood does NOT look like sycamore or planetree, but DOES look like both Australian and South American lacewood.
Roupala brasiliense (also reported as Roopola brasillensis) of the family Proteaceae [the same family as Australian silky oak], which is from South America and is properly called South American lacewood or Brazilian lacewood. It is also called leopardwood, but it is NOT the wood that is normally meant by the name "leopardwood" (more on that below)

As far as I can tell, these three woods are difficult to tell apart with the naked eye, although European lacewood tends to have a finer grain and smaller flakes than the other two. Also I have read that you cannot fully trust any of the designations "South American lacewood", "Australian lacewood", and "European lacewood", as vendors tend to get them confused, with there being a particular tendancy to call everything Australian lacewood whether it is or not.

Grevillea robusta of the family Proteaceae has the common name (Australian) Southern silky oak and "yellow lacewood" and "yellow silky oak" but is also called lacewood in the US, although it is significantly different than the three lacewoods that I have listed above, is not easily confused with them, and to my mind should NOT be called lacewood. There is ENOUGH confusion with the three I've listed.

leopardwood: this is Panopsis rubellens of the family Proteaceae, the same family as both South American lacewood and Australian lacewood, but is easy to distinguish from them with a small amount of experience --- it is darker brown in color and is harder and heavier and with a noticibly finer texture. It is sometimes called lacewood, as the lacewoods are sometimes called leopardwood. Although a small-flake lacewood and a large-flake leopardwood can have larger flakes on the leopardwood than the lacewood, the leopardwood will not produce flakes as large as what can be obtained on lacewood and will generally have smaller flakes and flakes that tend more towards the circular than the oblong that sometimes occurs in lacewood.

sycamore There are two woods that are commonly called sycamore:

Platanus occidentalis of the family Platanaceae, the plane or sycamore family --- although in the same family as South American and Australian lacewood, it would never be confused with them as it is a significantly different color and generally has much smaller rays. It is what we mean in the USA when we say "sycamore"
Acer pseudoplatanus of the family Aceraceae is totally unrelated to any of the other woods discussed here (it's a maple) and is called sycamore or harewood in England and is also called (European) plane or planetree both in England and in the USA. It does NOT have the ray flakes associated with American sycamore or lacewood, and in fact is not readily distinguished from any other curly maple, as you'll see on the hard maple page of this site. The name lacewood seems to be normally limited to the quartersawn cuts of this wood, and I have no idea why it is applied, even there. Note that even the NAME means "false sycamore" and nothing about its appearance suggests lacewood.

It is unfortunate that these two woods get confused at all with any of the lacewoods, since it is really only the NAMES that get confused --- the woods themselves would never be mistaken for any lacewood or leopardwood.

my samples (colors are all accurate):

plank and closeup

pair of planks and a closeup

small plank and end grain. The intracies of the pattern show more clearly if you expand the side-on picture.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- color is too dark

both sides of a sample plank --- the characteristic flakes are so tiny on this piece that you have to go to the 2nd enlargement to see them clearly. The lack of red/pink color is accurate.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

a reasonably good showing of the ray figure that is typical

both sides and end grain of a plank contributed by Chris Arvidson, whom I thank for this and other contributions. The ray flakes are there, but they are tiny and you have to go to the 2nd enlargement to see them clearly.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

the same plank as directly above but moistened with water.

small plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

several views of a turning stick, also contributed by Chris Arvidson --- unfortunately the end grain just doesn't show up.

same stick as directly above --- a two-side view both dry and moistened with water

both sides of a plank

closeups of the plank directly above

both sides of a plank

end grain shots of the plank directly above

end grain closeups of the plank directly above

both sides of a plank

end grain and end grain closeup of the plank directly above

both sides of a plank and a closeup

two sides of a plank

3 planks and a closeup

small plank and end grain --- this was cut from the middle of the 3 plank shown directly above

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

pair of planks

closeup from the pair directly above

plank

plank with what appears to be (I'm not positive) wide sapwood with bluestain

closeup from the plank directly above

quartersawn plank and end grain --- color has just a hint of orange that is not in the wood

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

planks

both sides of a sample plank. This sample was provided by Joe Melton, whom I thank for this and numerous other contributions. Joe lists this wood as London planetree, which is one of the names of what in the USA is normally called sycamore. The lacy flakes show up much better in the enlargements.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

I have read that freshly cut sycamore frequently exhibits a red or pinkish color that fades quickly as the planks dry, but I have never seen, or even heard of, such as spectacular example as this one submitted by Bart Bisscheroux from Holland (where sycamore is called "plataan" which I believe probably corresponds to the British name "plane"). At any rate, thank you very much, Bart. This log is about 12 feet long and 4 1/2 feet in diameter. Bart reports that the red color, spectacular though it is (and he was surprized by it as well), did fade rather quickly to a much more sedate pink.

a burl section from the log directly above. The pink/red of this freshly exposed burl faded to a mild pink.

another plank pic submitted by Bart (see the red log directly above) to show the contrast between normal freshly cut sycamore, which does show some pink, and the red log which is just amazing.

veneer --- this is the "planetree" variety, which is what one of the sycamore subspecies is called in England. This pic has just a shade too much red.

veneer with rays that are larger than what I normally expect in sycamore. The color is one of those yellow shades that defy my best efforts at color correction ... the actual wood is off-white with a yellow tint, not TOO far from what you see here but definitely with a little more yellow.

fiddleback English sycamore --- this is actually what we call maple in the USA and there are many more pics of this variety in the hard maple page --- I've left this one here to show the difference.

web pics --- colors are highly suspect throughout except for the first set of pics directly below

planks --- these colors seem reasonable

planks and a couple of closeups, the second of which shows some nice black-line spalting. I think the colors are a little too red on these pics.

freshly cut log section showing some of the pink one frequently finds in fresh wood

plank with both wet and dry sections

planks (many of these are quartersawn but were not specifically listed as such)

planks and closeup

plank and closeup --- colors seem too red

plank with a color that is just outrageous (impossible)

plank and closeup

moistened plank

bookmatched quartersawn planks

turning squares --- orange color seems unlikely

unseasoned turning squares still showing some of the red/pink that sometimes occurs in fresh cut sycamore

one of those web shots that I just can't resist putting in to show how badly wood is sometimes shown on the web. I have no idea where this yellow came from, but I'm confident it didn't come from the wood.

quartersawn planks

advertised as "lacewing" sycamore, but I really don't see any distinction, and the orange color is unlikely

American sycamore, two planks, a veneer sheet, a flat cut plank and a quartersawn plank, all with color that is likely too red/orange

pen blanks --- color looks good to me

turning stock

figured American sycamore veneer

European sycamore, a burl and a curly piece

European, a quartersawn piece and a flat cut piece

European veneer

quartersawn, a plank and a veneer sheet

burls

veneer just listed as sycamore

veneer, all from the same vendor

veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement available --- these are from the same vendor as the set directly above.

cluster burl veneer

burl veneer

figured veneer

numerous samples of "Planetree" sycamore veneer. This is the English designation for one of the subspecies of sycamore.

planetree sycamore veneer closeups

"Planetree" veneer from a vendor whose pics make many woods appear green regardless of the true color of the wood

"planetree" burl and turning stock from burl

"planetree" burl veneer

English burl veneer

this is the kind of "sycamore" that is actually maple even though the British call it sycamore --- see the "hard maple" page for more

a sycamore bowl

book-match spalted planks

spalted planks

spalted plank with color that is unlikely. Spalt lines don't really show up clearly until the 2nd enlargment

a set of spalted planks and a closeup. The first pic is dry wood, the 2nd pic is with the wood moistented with mineral spirits. Both pics are WAY too red, and this is typical of this somewhat dishonest vendor. The closeup is a much more realistic color.