Finishing lacewood

[creasman]

I'm thinking of using lacewood on a project and have some questions regarding how it finishes. I planed a sample piece and it seems to finish very well from a tooling perspective. I did notice that it feels a bit oily after planing. For those who have experience with this wood, does it need to be pre-treated in any way before applying a finish? The finish I plan to use will be shellac or polyurethane. I may apply Danish oil before finishing.

On a related note I read that lacewood can produce an allergic reaction similar to poison ivy. Anyone experienced this before? Any recommendations on working with it? FWIW, I have never had a reaction to any other wood I've worked with -- but I do react to poison ivy .

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dee2]

I've turned several lighthouses from lacewood. In turning it tends to leave little pockets, maybe chip outs. Since I want a glass finish, I build up the finish with multiple lacquer coats, sand it down, and rinse and repeat until it is smooth. If you turn the face grain you can create some fascinating swirling raindrop patterns.

I like the finished looked but since I'm bad at the finding an alternate efficient finishing process, I've moved to a more dramatic colored wood, black Siris, and a blonde burl rather than red mallee. YMMV

 

[Woodmolds]

I've had good luck using Antique oil(base coat) and lacquer(pre-cat) topcoats. I've got pieces that have been finished for at least 10 years and have held up well and still look good. Only surface prep was sanding.

While I'm allergic to poison oak/ivy. I've never experienced any reactions from any wood. I've worked with every exotic that is available from Wall Lumber and never had any reaction, but some of the guys were allergic to some rosewoods.


Veneer and Solid

 

[creasman]

Thanks for the info. I will be using it as veneer. Seems like there are no worries. Just treat it like any other wood.

 

[JohnnyR]

I've finished with danish oil and nothing else, been very happy with it.

 

[Dee2]

Oh, and no reaction to lacewood.

 

[Henry W]

I have a few tables l did with lakewood tops. It was sold as lakewood at least, but l go back and forth on lakewood or leopardwood. Finished with shellac, and then eventually a sprayed polyurethane on top of that.
I had No particular reactions to the dust/particles while working with it.

 

[creasman]

I think it's one of those overused wood names that really needs an adjective in front. Sort of like "oak", only worse. This is what I find in Wikipedia:

Lacewood is a common name for the wood produced from a number of different trees, with mostly a striking appearance of their "lace-wood“, which gets its name from the lace like pattern: These include:

• Allanblackia floribunda, Allanblackia parviflora, West African trees
• Cardwellia sublimis, an Australian tree
• Elaeocarpus bojeri, "bois dentelle", due to the unique patterns of its flowers
• Euplassa pinnata, Euplassa cantareirae, trees from northeastern South america
• Firmiana papuana, a tree from New Guinea
• Grevillea robusta, an East Australian tree
• Lagetta lagetto, a Caribbean tree, lacebark tree, lace tree, "bois dentelle", the inner bark is formed of reticulated fibres so as to resemble a coarse kind of lace.
• Macadamia spp., Australian trees
• Monoon oblongifolium (Syn.: Polyalthia oblongifolia) Mempisang, a Philppinean tree, yellow lacewood
• Platanus spp.; Platanus occidentalis American sycamore, Platanus × hispanica London plane [1]
• Panopsis spp.; Panopsis rubescens and Panopsis sessilifolia [2]
• Roupala montana, Roupala cordialis Leopardwood, brazilian lacewood, South American lacewood, Ropala lacewood
• Sterculia shillinglawii, a tree from New Guinea

 

[Keye]

Lace wood almost killed me, no exaggeration. This was decades ago. Went to Charlotte Hardwood and they had a large quantity of lace wood for a really great price stacked just inside of the door. I had never heard of lace wood but it is beautiful and I bought all of it. I made a couple of jewelry boxes and had no issues. I was asked to make a large coffee table using the lace wood. By the time I started serious sanding it was winter and I had shop closed up. I stopped sanding and left for the doctors office for a routine checkup. On the way to the doctors I started having trouble breathing. Fortunately this was back in the time when someone actually answered the phone. I told them what was happening, did not know why at the time, and asked if they would have someone waiting for me at the front door. My doctor was waiting for me with syringe in hand. When I opened the car door I fell out of the car onto the pavement. It was amazing how quickly the shot worked. They keep me around for a couple of hours and then I left for home. It did not take much research to realize what happened.

Moral of the story, Make sure you have a lot of fresh air coming into your shop.

I did finish making the table with out any more problems.