Lacewood

[Jim McDonald]

Anyone have much experience with lacewood?

I picked up a couple of 1/8" sticks from Woodcraft and on my first little piece I was impressed with how well it cut using a 2R. The cut edges almost look polished. Can't afford a really big piece right now, but for what I've done so far the wood impressed me.

[workin for wood]

There are several different lacewoods, so who really knows what it is you have. I have two different oak lacewoods and the more popular Sycamore. Lacewood is a combination of the type of tree and the way it is milled. They work great in intarsia for simulating scales like snakes, lizards and dragons, or even fish too. As a fretwork, it's not so great as the wood is too busy for my taste.

[lucky788scroller]

Yes, it can scroll pretty easy.To me, any wood scrolls easy at 1/8th thickness, actually to easy for my liking. I have two different types of lacewood here, both supposedly the same stuff, but one piece weighs twice what the other does, and one is super hard, the other relatively soft like a mahogany, they both look pretty identical.I was told one was lacewood, one was leopardwood, but either way, they look neat, but for the right kind of project, like Jeff said.It can be a tad brittle as well.
One thing fun with it, cut something out, and soak it in clorox bleach for a few hours.The cool spots on it will almost appear glow-in-the-dark !!!

[workin for wood]

Just for those that might not know...the spots are where the tree holds it's food. Every tree has them, but they are different in every type of tree, so in an apple tree for instance, the spots are long, dense and compressed so that you can't see them unless using a microscope, and an oak tree has wide sporatically spaced spots. They have a specific name, but it escapes me at this time.

[Plaquerd]

Jeff
Is the name of the rays Medullary? I'm not sure but I think that is the correct term.

[Barefoot1]

Originally Posted by lucky788scroller

One thing fun with it, cut something out, and soak it in clorox bleach for a few hours.The cool spots on it will almost appear glow-in-the-dark !!!

And we know this how???

[lucky788scroller]

Originally Posted by Barefoot1

And we know this how???

Uhhhhhhhhhh, lets just say I just do know, LOL. Actually, on occasion I will take a small piece of different types of wood I have and experiment with some ideas just to see what happens with it.

[Janette]

A lot of folks sell "lacewood" is actually leopardwood. I'm no expert tho. I've seen 2 different versions. One is harder than a bugger and the other is soft. I use a lot of the harder stuff - bought as lacewood - but I think it's actually leopardwood. It contains a lot of silica and dulls blades really fast but it's so beautiful - it's worth the trouble. I'd imagine thinner it would be much easier to cut- mine is about 7/8" thick and HARD !! Polishes up wonderfully...if you can get that far!