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| Home Painting Skills and Basics Paperhanging Home Decorating Interior Decorating Wood Identification |
PlaneThe eastern plane, P.orientaiis, of SE Europe, Turkey and Iran, and the western plane, P.occidentaiis, of the eastern United States, called by the Americans buttonwood or sicamore, have hybridized to produce the European plane,  P.hybrida, the familiar urban landscape tree. The American and European planes are tall trees giving large logs; the eastern plane is smaller.Plane is a pale-brown wood with large rays clearly visible on flat-sawn surfaces; when accurately quarter-cut, the rays give the wood a very distinctive fleck-figure and it is then known as lacewood. Plane has a fine, even texture and usually a straight grain. European plane is about 15 per cent lighter in weight than beech, and American wood lighter again. Plane dries readily but has a tendenciy to distort. It has moderate strength properties"generally comparable to those of mahogany, but it is not quite as stiff. It saws well, apart from a slight tendency to bind, and it machines easily to give a good finish, if cutters are kept sharp to avoid tearing ray tissue on quartered stock. It is perishable. European plane is usually seen as quartered veneer used for panelling, e.g., in railway carriages, or as inlay or in marquetry. Sawn wood is sometimes used for such general purposes as handles for brushes and non-striking tools. American plane is more readily available and is used in furniture and for pallets, packaging, butchers' blocks and, as veneer, for panelling and door skins. Extract from 'The International book of WOOD' curtesy Michael Beazley Publishers Limited 1979. |
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