London Plane

[Bill Boehme]

I'm looking for feedback from anybody who has turned London Plane. Although I've heard the name mentioned I'd never seen it until recently when I bought a couple very large turning blanks at our local Rockler Hardware. While sifting through the bin searching for large maple blanks, the London Plane blanks caught my attention with their very tightly spaced thin medullary rays. These blanks were from quartersawn stock which made the ray pattern especially attractive. I also noticed that the wood has a lot of sparkle in sunlight and when I viewed it with a magnifying glass I could tell that the sparkle appeared on the open end of pores so now I'm wondering if it might be mineral deposits.

So far I've only worked on truing up one of the faces and while it turns well, I noticed under closer examination with a magnifying glass there is chip out in the wood between the medullary rays even with shear cutting. Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry about this because the surface could be sanded smooth, but my intent was to bead the surface to create a basket illusion piece. Since the beading tool is basically a scraper I am concerned that it will wind up creating ragged beads with a lot of tear out. This wood is thoroughly dry which might have an effect on its workability.

 

[hockenbery]

London plane is fairly common around Maryland often planted as a street tree.
It is difficult to tell from Sycamore. The London plane bark and branches shows a green cast where sycaomer shows white.
The wood is just like sycamore with the ray flecks being a distinguishing mark.

I have turned nice beads on bowls with a spindle gouge. Not sure how well it will scrape.

If you have any experience with sycamore then you will have the same experience with London plane.

 

[robo hippy]

I think the 'London Plane' is a cross between the American and European Sycamore. It needs to be quartersawn to get the ray patterns, which can be spectacular. Most of the time it is rather boring in color, but can spalt nicely. I did get one that was blood red on the interior when fresh cut, but that color mostly faded when exposed to air and sun, like in an hour or two, but it ended up having more color than any others that I have gotten. It is rather soft, and finish seems to vanish into it as in soaks it up like a dry sponge. For hollow forms you can get get the ray pattern on maybe half of the form. It does cut well. When I visit family in Missery (Missouri to others...) the sycamore look like white ghosts in the winter woods. Out here in Oregon, a 30 year old plane tree can be 30 inches on the stump. Lots of rain and a mild growing season....

robo hippy

 

[Bill Boehme]

Thanks for the replies. I've never turned sycamore that I recall. It doesn't seem to be a very popular yard tree around here. According to Google, London Plane is a cross between Oriental Plane and American Sycamore, but some botanists think it might be a cultivar of Oriental Plane.

I'm using a D-Way beading tool so I will see if it can be beaded without tearing up. If it were still green I think it would cut cleaner.