silky oak

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NOTE: there is rarely any "standard" or "typical" look for a wood so take what's in this table with a grain of salt
the REST of the pictures on this page will give you a better overall feel for this wood

silky oak / Grevillea robusta
(other species also shown on this page)
Grevillea robusta of the family Proteaceae. There is some confusion around this name, but my own samples were sold to me as Grevillea robusta, if any botanical designation was given, and the Wood Book (see below) lists silky oak as Grevillea robusta. For a discussion of the name confusions, see the link below the composite pic.

5" x 5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

There are at least 40 other species from over 20 other genera that have "sliky oak" as all or part of one or more of their common names and some of them are included on this page including blush silky oak / Bleasdalea bleasdalei, briar silky oak / Musgravea heterophylla, and brown silky oak / Darlingia darlingiana.

Diffuse porous with obvious scalariform parenchyma. Rays vary in size but are generally very wide and easily visible with the naked eye. Ray flakes on quartersawn surfaces are small to quite large (this pic alone shows a decent spread of sizes)

Because of the large ray flakes that it sometimes has, this wood is sometimes called lacewood although it would never be confused with true lacewoods (more about that in the link directly below). Also, it COULD be confused with sycamore by an inexperienced viewer. This wood is moderately light, easy to work, and has a pleasing grain pattern.

In Hawaii, this wood often goes by the name "silver oak"

An illustrated discussion on the confusion among the names
lacewood, leopardwood, planetree, sycamore, silky oak and others

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of silky oak / Grevillea robusta --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of silky oak / Grevillea robusta --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

plank and closeup. The face grain shows up much better in the enlargements

the other side of the plank above, and a closeup. Again, the face grain shows up much better in the enlargements

a small section, with sapwood, cut from the larger plank above and medium-sanded

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides of a pair of planks

plank and end grain --- color is just a hair too pink. This is a near-quartersawn piece taken from one of the larger pieces directly above. The face grain shown is almost perfectly quartersawn, as you can see from the end grain. The opposite face had much smaller ray flakes as you would expect from the angle of the rays to that face.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATEof the piece directly above

plank and closeup

plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

a couple of small planks and an end grain shot. I noticed these as I was taking cuts off of a larger plank and separated them out because of the excellent quartersawn surface on the side of each. You can see the ray flakes better in the enlargements.

end grain closeup of one of the pieces directly above.

side grain close up and end grain closeup of one of the small planks above. On the end grain shot, the right-hand side shows the almost perfectly quartersawn surface that is shown in the side grain shot which shows the elongated ray flakes that occur when the rays are parallel to the surface.

both sides of a sample plank of blush silky oak / Bleasdalea bleasdalei --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of brown silky oak / Darlingia darlingiana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of dwarf silky oak (aka Bank's grevillea) / Grevillea banksii --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of briar silky oak / Musgravea heterophylla --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of red silky oak / Grevillea hilliana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of fishtail silky oak / Neorites kevediana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The color on these pics are too red. Try as I might I could not get the color correction to properly show the wood as the more reddish-brown that it is instead of the reddish-purple that shows here

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of diffuse porous black silky oak/ Stenocarpus reticulatus --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Southern silky oak / Orites excelsa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Although Mark has this correctly identified as "prickly ash", it also goes by the name Southern silky oak and since I've put it here on the silky oak page, I've chosen to use that common name.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

silky oak veneer --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sheet was contributed to the site by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

The Wood Book pics

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
silky oak (Grevillea robusta) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are present for all 3 views

web pics:

plank and closeup

planks listed specifically as silky oak / Cardwellia sublimis

freshly milled slab listed as silky oak / Cardwellia sublimus and milled in North Queensland

planks listed as silky oak without botanical designation --- the rich orange color in the first one is unlikely but I cannot say with authority that is is false.

face and side grains of a few small planks

plank and turning stock. Note that the upper piece in the 2nd pic is the same as the lower right in the 1st pic but the colors are totoally different. The 1st pic has, I am sure, the correct color. The 3rd pic is from the same set of wood, but was taken along with the 2nd pic, thus also has the wrong color.

although listed as "silky oak", I am pretty confident that this is NOT silky oak, it is a Quercus spp., most likely a white oak.

planks, all listed as lacewood / Grevillea robusta, but as explained elsewhere, I do hold that the name lacewood is more properly applied to Cardwellia sublimis and Roupala brasiliense and Grevillea robusta should be called lacewood, so I put it here (and these do LOOK like the other pics here of silky oak / Grevillea robusta).

planks listed as Australian lacewood / Grevillea robusta --- see note with set directly above

plank listed as silky oak / Australian lacewood

plank listed as Hawaiian lacewood

flat cut and quartersawn faces of a plank listed as silk (sic) oak and with a color that I do not find believable

scales listed as silky oak / Grevillea robusta

plank listed as moistened silky oak, but with a color that is just ridiculous --- it's possible that this is actually lacewood in which case the color would be somewhat more believable