On 2004-12-11, Charlie Self wrote:
Kruppt notes:

Some of the lumber does have this fiddle-back figure in it.
I milled up a sycamore maple as an experiment,
as you do not hear much about this type of lumber. I have read somewhere in
the past, that if quarter sawed, it has a similar appearance to lace-wood.
So I sawed up a bit of it to see how true that was.
It was not noticeable when first milled, but after it was
exposed to air for a few days, there it was, that nice grain pattern.
The lumber is very wet, as this sycamore maple retains a lot of water.
The sycamore lumber has more water in it than any other type I have sawn
to date, and that may be why it would stain easily/quickly. (mold/mildew)
It was very white when first sawn, and has turned to a light orange
and white alternation in the grain pattern. Very nice.

Are you sure you have sycamore maple and not real sycamore? I've got some
sycamore here, QS, lovely stuff, lots of rays, resemblance to lacewood is
moderately strong (especially if you haven't handled lacewood in a few years),
color in each board ranges from a silvery white through a modest tan. From
years past, I know sycamore is wet when cut...it thrives in areas near streams
and ponds (my yard sycamore is near a large pond, closer to a spring), so
wetness might be expected.

Charlie Self
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain

Yes it is real sycamore. The locals here call it sycamore maple.
I did a search, and the sycamore maple pics I saw, do not resemble it at all.
This tree is a real sycamore, sorry for the confusion.
The color and grain of my lumber looks very much like the
pic in the below link. I have not used lacewood myself yet,
but the local hardwood supplier has some, and I have seen
what it looks like. I have not looked through all the boards
closely yet as it has been raining.
I did not see much that looked like lacewood. I did
see a few small areas that looked similar, but not whole
boards, or very large areas. I'm still glad I sawed the lumber
as the grain is very pretty. Here this tree is very
abundant, as it is very wet here, it is considered a "trash tree"
by most here. If I had known the grain looked as it does,
I would have salavaged many of these trees in the past,
and will do so in the future. A neighbor cut down a very
large one, and left the main section of the tree on the ground to
rot away. The trunk is something like 4' diameter.

http://www.sustainablelumber.com/eba...12-11Gsyc2.jpg

Kruppt