# Buttonwood



## Rodbuster (Sep 11, 2013)

Is buttonwood an attractive wood and is it good to turn?

Thank you
Dick


----------



## BassBlaster (Nov 21, 2010)

Never heard of buttonwood.

Attractiveness is a personal thing. What I find attractive might not be the same for you. Example: Nearly every woodworker I know drools over quarter sawn oak. It does nothing for me. Oak, regardless of how its sawn is kind of boring to me.

A quick Google Image search didn't turn up a single pic of buttonwood in anything other than plant form.


----------



## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

It's not listed on my go-to site for all things to do with wood identification (HobbitHouse Wood ID site) but I did find this entry on Wiktionary:

*buttonwood* (_plural_ *buttonwoods*)


The common name given to at least three species of shrub or tree.
The mangrove tree, _Conocarpus erectus_, family Combretaceae, a tropical and subtropical species.
The American sycamore or American plane tree, _Platanus occidentalis_, family Platanaceae.
California sycamore or western sycamore, _Platanus racemosa_.
 
 I can't speak for the other 2, but the American sycamore is said to turn nicely and has some good figure.


----------



## NCPaladin (Aug 7, 2010)

I bing rather than google and this is the first listing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttonwood_tree

Sycamore turns great and if it is any size at all try to quartersaw some. Bing "quartersawn sycamore" for some pictures of grain. :thumbsup:
I finally found the word, chatoyance, that is used to describe how the wood looks quartersawn. I just call it shimmering as it changes depending on how the light reflects off of it.
Not quartersawn it can be a little plain to me as to color variations but still nice. In Michael O'Donnells video on Turning Green Wood he chose sycamore for all 5-7 projects due to its hardness and abiltiy to turn thin to translucent.
In one class by Jimmy Clewes that I attended he used sycamore for his coloring segement.


----------



## Daniel Jechura (Dec 17, 2012)

I turn sycamore all the time and love it. Its even better when it's spalted. :thumbsup:

Dan J.
Temperance, mi


----------



## ghost5 (Aug 19, 2012)

What Dan said if you are talking about sycamore I turn in and love it usually mine will be spalted.


----------



## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

duncsuss said:


> It's not listed on my go-to site for all things to do with wood identification (HobbitHouse Wood ID site) but I


Yeah, it's obscure, and you would have had to know to look on the sycamore page, click on the "fact sheet" icon and there is would tell you that buttonwood is one of the common names for sycamore.

It isn't common enough for me to have it as a "see also" pointing to sycamore.


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

Rodbuster said:


> Is buttonwood an attractive wood and is it good to turn?
> 
> Thank you
> Dick


Dick ,
to narrow down the field from the hundreds to the one you have , 
you will have to supply more info .
Photos will help , of the leaves , the seed/fruit , the bark , and of the trees themselves . 
If the wood has been cut , photos of the end grain and the long grain.
Failing any photos of the above , a good description of the same .


----------



## Rodbuster (Sep 11, 2013)

So, it's a sycamore.
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the tree, bark or leaves. Somebody I know lives down in the Keys and he asked me if I wanted some "buttonwood". I told him that I had no idea what buttonwood was and that I would get back to him.

From what I've read on your posts, I will certainly tell him "yes". I also remember a while back, somebody telling me that sycamore was a great wood to turn....I just didn't know at the time that it was also called buttonwood.

Thank you very much for all your replies.
Dick


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

> Buttonwood is a common name for species within several genera of trees:
> 
> 
> _Conocarpus_, a tropical genus
> ...


And Native to Florida 


> ~Buttonwood, Buttonwood Mangrove - Conocarpus erectus
> 
> Family - Combretaceae
> 
> ...


----------



## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

Rodbuster said:


> ....I just didn't know at the time that it was also called buttonwood.
> Dick


I also did not realize that that name is used in the USA for sycamore. I knew it was used that way in England, because the original London stock exchange was started after a meeting under a "buttonwood tree", which I always thought was some obscure English tree until I checked it out some time back.


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

phinds said:


> I also did not realize that that name is used in the USA for sycamore. I knew it was used that way in England, because the original London stock exchange was started after a meeting under a "buttonwood tree", which I always thought was some obscure English tree until I checked it out some time back.


 Sycamore , the London Plane Tree ,
planted along Avenues throughout the Empire :furious:

dammed leaves blocking up the spoutings and gutters


----------



## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

Manuka Jock said:


> Sycamore , the London Plane Tree ,


Actually, sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and London plane (Platanus hybrida) are not the same wood as you can see from the botanical names.

See here:

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_discussion_sycamore.htm

for more


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

phinds said:


> Actually, sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and London plane (Platanus hybrida) are not the same wood as you can see from the botanical names.
> 
> See here:
> 
> ...


 *Platanus × acerifolia*, *London plane*, *London planetree*, or *hybrid plane*, is a tree in the genus _Platanus_. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of _Platanus orientalis_ (oriental plane) and _Platanus occidentalis_ (American sycamore). Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of _P. orientalis_.


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

And a more in-depth piece here 

*http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a892*


----------



## JohnInTexas (Apr 1, 2014)

We have sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) in my area and I recently found a huge one that had fallen and partially spalted. The wood is still wet so I had some drying issues. I cut a 12-inch thick wafer from the trunk and couldn't carry it so I cut it in pie-shaped thirds. I'll post a photo of a piece I recently turned. The wood has several different colors and some very nice speckling at different depths from the bark. Thus far, I'm very happy with how little checking there is in the two other thirds I haven't turned.


----------



## JohnInTexas (Apr 1, 2014)

Here are a few photos of a sycamore project. The sycamore was blown down and I plan to take a few more pieces from it since the wood is so nice.

Here is the turned piece positioned about where it was in the tree.










I have struggled with my green wood pieces cracking so this piece was an experiment. It is more a sleeve than a vessel because I took out all of the inside.


----------



## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

That's good work John , I like the figure in the wood .

One way to help prevent that cracking , is to start with a longer log rather than a firewood round .
The rule of thumb is that the log be one and a half times longer that the object being made from it . 
Split / rive the log down it's length - halves , thirds , quarters etc - to eliminate the central pith (and the cracking that usually results from it), and centre the blank along the riven piece .

The orientation of the object to the grain of the wood is all important .
Yours is interesting , and may work out ok sometimes with good effect , as we see above ,
but often it will come to grief , with a split up the middle. 
The cracks radiating out from the pith will see to that .

cheers


----------



## Rodbuster (Sep 11, 2013)

John, thank you for sharing pictures of your sycamore project.
It certainly looks like a good looking wood to work with.

Dick


----------

