Fishtail Oak

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Is Fishtail Oak and Lacewood the same thing or are they just similar? Or is Fishtail flat sawn while Lacewood is quartersawn?

I don't believe Fishtail Oak is an oak at all per some info I found, ie is not genus Quercus.

Come on Aussies, give me your insight :-)

[drumpriest]

Lacewood is from the Oak family, I've never heard of fishtail oak though, so I'm not sure.

I await the better informed among us....

[RayintheUK]

Here's what I found, Jeffrey:

"Lacewood" is 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.

"Fishtail Oak" 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.

HTH.

Ray.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Lacewood is from the Oak family, I've never heard of fishtail oak though, so I'm not sure.

I await the better informed among us....

Per below and sources I found it appears lacewood is not a true oak. All oaks belong to the genus Quercus of the family Fagaceae.

"There are some other woods that use the name oak (some of which I have also broken out separately), but which are not actually oaks. None of these are of the genus Quercus. These include sheoak, fishtail oak, Australian oak, Tasmanian oak, New Guinea oak and various varieties of "silky oak". "

Ray,

Boy that sounds better than a Philadelphia Lawyer! "Lacewood is sometimes called Leopardwood, but it is not the wood that is normally meant by the name Leopardwood. Fishtail oak is not really an oak. It is however sometimes called lacewood, which as we know is sometimes called Leopardwood. Small-flake lacewood and large-flake leopardwood can have larger flakes on the leopardwood than the lacewooed, but leopardwood will not produce flakes as large as lacewood if the lacewood lives up to it's potential." LOLOLLOLOLOL!!!!

Anyway, it does show Lacewood as being related but distictively different from Fishtail Oak. Come to think of it I should have figured this as the Fishtail Oak was much denser than the lacewood. It was also darker but I attributed that to light reflection in what I thought was a difference of sawing.

Hidden gloat . . . . guess who has a bunch of Fishtail Oak? Hint : It is the same person whose pockets are much lighter!

[RayintheUK]

Per below and sources I found it appears lacewood is not a true oak.

Over here, "lacewood" refers to the London Plane tree (dicotyledon family Platanaceae, in the order Hamamelidales), just for completeness.

My supplier has several 2" - 3" boards probably 27" wide and about 20 feet long, but a they're a little out of my league at the moment, both in size and price!

Be sure to post pics of whatever you make with that beautiful-looking wood, Jeffrey.

Ray.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Over here, "lacewood" refers to the London Plane tree (dicotyledon family Platanaceae, in the order Hamamelidales), just for completeness.

My supplier has several 2" - 3" boards probably 27" wide and about 20 feet long, but a they're a little out of my league at the moment, both in size and price!

Be sure to post pics of whatever you make with that beautiful-looking wood, Jeffrey.

Ray.

Holy smokes! How much is one of those puppies?

[RayintheUK]

Holy smokes! How much is one of those puppies?

I didn't even dare to ask! I think two of them are going to form a conference table - now that's a project I must try and keep track of.

Ray.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Amazingly I found a store in Philly that specializes in exotic hardwood flooring. Fishtail oak was one of them. Infact they had a bunch of left overs that I might go check out.

[drumpriest]

I have some lacewood veneers for a project, and can't wait to use it. Great looking stuff. The priciest piece of lumber I've seen thus far is a 10+ foot 2" thick chunk of waterfall bubinga at the local rockler. 4300$

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I have some lacewood veneers for a project, and can't wait to use it. Great looking stuff. The priciest piece of lumber I've seen thus far is a 10+ foot 2" thick chunk of waterfall bubinga at the local rockler. 4300$

Looking at the piece on finwoodworkers.co/bubinga.htm, I assume that $4300. That is an amazing piece of wood, at a strikingly amazing price!

[drumpriest]

Yeah, it is, I scored some veneer of that stuff as well, nice and cheap. Dunno what I'll do with it, but it's fantastic.