I'm thinking this is crepe myrtle but I'm not really sure. Anyone recognize it?
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What species of wood is this?
- Thread starter Monty Ivy
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From the bark I think you are right on . usually lots of curl in it also, you will see when you turn it
Is that wax or some kind of sealer on the end? The bark looks like crepe myrtle, but the wood should not be that dark.
The wood in the photo is wet from the rains that morning. It has lightened up since then.
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Bark does look like crepe myrtle. We have some eucalyptus that have similar bark
These Australian trees grow here mostly in urban areas as landscape plantings.
Red gum would be dark wood like the photo - terrific for turning…..
But others have lighter colored wood.
Don’t know if you are too far north to have eucalyptus. Pretty sure they could do well in Corpus Christi to Brownsville
Any chance it might be Sycamore?
Bark sample
Bark sample
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Sycamore is a possibility, I've seen some growing here.
Even wet the wood looks too dark for crepe myrtle.
Cut up the mystery log into blanks earlier this week. Rough turned one of them today. I'm leaning toward sycamore. Now that the grain is exposed, any further ideas on what kind of wood?
Donna Banfield
TOTW Team
I live too far north to ever have crepe myrtle for turning stock. But I have turned sycamore, and that bark and interior looks like sycamore to me. It typically is quite bland wood, (in the maple family, I think) but it is a sought after wood for all manner of surface embellishments because of that. AAW Board member Sally Burnett from the UK uses sycamore almost exclusively in her work. Sally Burnett
Tom Gall
TOTW Team
It looks like Sycamore to me - at least the few pieces I've turned. I've got two fairly large trees in my back yard but have only gotten some small branches that have fallen off. I'm sure I'll be long gone before I get to turn any of that trunk wood.
In England their Sycamore is similar to our Maple (see Donna's post above). Their London Plane is more like our Sycamore.
At least that is my understanding.
In England their Sycamore is similar to our Maple (see Donna's post above). Their London Plane is more like our Sycamore.
At least that is my understanding.
Thank you Donna. That's some amazing art work far far above my capability.
The sycamore/plane tree, and its variations, have spectacular medullary rays, IF you quarter saw it. Most of the time it is rather bland, but when quarter sawn, it is really pretty. I got one once where the inside was fire engine red. It stayed that way for about 2 hours, then the red faded. It still had more color than most of the sycamore I have had. It also has extremely high moisture content. It can warp far beyond the 10% rule.
robo hippy
robo hippy
This shows that yes it is Sycamore, look at the rim of the second pictured you can see the medullary rays a bit as that area is close to where these will show up best.
I have turned Sycamore a number times, and some pictures do show these rays better, the nicest is where I used it as a background to some bottle stoppers.
