Odie
Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
Just wondering what your opinions on this wood is........
Photos would be great, if you have them.....
ko
Photos would be great, if you have them.....
ko
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Anyone here turned a spalted sycamore bowl?
- Thread starter Odie
- Start date
Sycamore and London Plane spalt really quickly. As long as it doesn't go too far, and especially if you can quarter saw it (center of the tree is bottom of bowl) it is spectacular.
robo hippy
robo hippy
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Sycamore has little distinctive grain but usually has spectacular rays.
It is one of the softer hardwoods I consider it acceptable for bowls but not a prime bowl wood.
If it is quarter sawn as Reed mentioned the Rays will be in the bottom of the bowl.
Often the Rays only show in two narrow lines on opposite sides to a turning.
Spalting can add a nice grain pattern and accentuate the Rays.
Below is a photo of a practice dragon fly on a 3" diameter sycamore(not salted) disc with a side grain face.
It shows the Rays on the dragon fly.
With finish the Rays would pop.
Sycamore turns nicely. I turned a couple of fun bowl from spalted sycamore years ago. ithe wood was full of about to hatch wasps. It looked a bit like Swiss cheese from the wasp tunnels.
Al
It is one of the softer hardwoods I consider it acceptable for bowls but not a prime bowl wood.
If it is quarter sawn as Reed mentioned the Rays will be in the bottom of the bowl.
Often the Rays only show in two narrow lines on opposite sides to a turning.
Spalting can add a nice grain pattern and accentuate the Rays.
Below is a photo of a practice dragon fly on a 3" diameter sycamore(not salted) disc with a side grain face.
It shows the Rays on the dragon fly.
With finish the Rays would pop.
Sycamore turns nicely. I turned a couple of fun bowl from spalted sycamore years ago. ithe wood was full of about to hatch wasps. It looked a bit like Swiss cheese from the wasp tunnels.
Al
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Turned some long ago. Also London Plane from daughter's in law place. Can be called lacewood , but I don't think so in our US London plane trees. Made large salad bowl for them, and indiv salad bowls. I was disappointed in the amount of "lace"- it is the quarter sawn areas that I believe had the "lace". Color was light brown.
Had sycamore from neighbor's big tree. Had to spalt it cause otherwise boring. Spalting helped, but I didn't get it real spalted. . I love the knots-beautiful rays within. Some didn't split at the knot. As I recall it was on the hard side to finish being soft. But I was not using my current protocol for a couple of coats of shellac sanding sealer, which would have helped. Gretch
Had sycamore from neighbor's big tree. Had to spalt it cause otherwise boring. Spalting helped, but I didn't get it real spalted. . I love the knots-beautiful rays within. Some didn't split at the knot. As I recall it was on the hard side to finish being soft. But I was not using my current protocol for a couple of coats of shellac sanding sealer, which would have helped. Gretch
Odie,
We have a lot of sycamore here in Texas so we turn it a lot. I have spalted several pieces and it turns nicely if you get it before it goes punky. I could only find one picture of a small hollowform (about 4" in diameter) which is not highly spalted, but it did turn out pretty nice. I'll turn all the spalted sycamore I can get.
Dave
We have a lot of sycamore here in Texas so we turn it a lot. I have spalted several pieces and it turns nicely if you get it before it goes punky. I could only find one picture of a small hollowform (about 4" in diameter) which is not highly spalted, but it did turn out pretty nice. I'll turn all the spalted sycamore I can get.
Dave
Odie
Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
OK, thanks everyone........ 
There was a large piece of spalted sycamore for sale at auction.....don't remember ever turning any. A moot issue anyway, because it's no longer available......
ko
There was a large piece of spalted sycamore for sale at auction.....don't remember ever turning any. A moot issue anyway, because it's no longer available......
ko
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Funny you should ask. I have a large bowl (started at 22" and after grinding to fit lathe and turning is about 16") in progress. It has now dried and just have not gotten to final turning. Tenons are a problem so faceplate is the best way and even then I have had screws to pull out. Just for your future reference.