What type of wood is sycamore

Often, Sycamore trees attain a height of over feet with an average diameter of 3 to 8 feet. Because of the great heights and diameters typically attained by Sycamore trees they often produce excellent sized logs.

Since the logs are of such generous size, the hardwood logs harvested are ideal for many woodworking applications because of the above average widths and lengths that can be obtained from these logs. From our experience, we find that Sycamore is traditionally used in the production of furniture, furniture parts, joinery paneling and mouldings.

In some instances, it can even be used for kitchenware and cutting boards. Several other American planes, as they are called, grow in California and Arizona but are not commercially significant.

FIA data shows sycamore growing stock in the U. American sycamore is growing 4. When it comes to the friction fire method of bow-drilling, the dead wood of sycamore timber fits the bill just nicely. As already stressed in this article the non-native sycamore tree is widely distributed and often locally common. Another non-native, bow-drill tree in Ireland is lime, Tillia spp.

This makes their distribution sporadic, often sparse and unreliable. More often than not - dry, well-seasoned sycamore wood is of optimal density and dryness for bow-drilling.

In Ireland, there are not that many widely distributed, relatively common, bow-drill tree species - all the more reason in becoming very familiar with sycamore.

More than passable as fuel, sycamore wood produces a hot flame with good embers. In addition sycamore wood splits well with an axe and cuts easily and cleanly with a outdoor saw. Dead Branches : Large and medium-sized sycamore trees seem to produce a high proportion of dead branches and twigs. Some of the dead branches are still attached to the living tree, some are broken off, some are suspended in the tree while some branches lay upon the woodland floor.

The dead branches that are off the woodland floor suspended or attached are usually dry and make excellent fuel and kindling. An arm-thick sycamore branch with many side branches and twigs can provide a surprising amount of fuel and kindling - often enough to get a camp-fire started and established. Dead Basal Shoots: At the base of many sycamore trunks there are many straight, dead and living basal shoots.

Thin, dry and long — the dead basal shoots make excellent kindling and are especially useful for the fire-lay of the small twig fire. Often, at the base of mature sycamore trees there is an abundance of shoots growing. Some of these shoots are dead and very dry, and are ideal kindling for fire-lighting Photo: Sean Fagan. Suspended Dead Twigs: Entangled among sycamore branches there is also an abundance of dead, thin sycamore twigs. Not all twigs are the same when it comes to good kindling.

For example, the dead twigs of rowan, Sorbus aucuparia , generally make poor kindling due to the high moisture content. Sycamore twigs, however, make excellent kindling. When making a campfire in a broadleaf wood where sycamore trees are dominant it would be prudent to preferentially select sycamore twigs for kindling.

Feather Sticks: Sycamore wood can be easily carved and can, sometimes, be carved into feather sticks. However, this can prove problematic as many dead sycamore limbs branch a lot, with the result that sourcing multiple, 1-foot lengths of knot-free, dead sycamore wood a somewhat difficult task. There are alternative solutions — branchy sycamore limbs can be carved into shorter-length feather sticks, although quite a few more of them have to be made approx.

Using two sycamore feather-sticks to ignite holly Ilex aquifolium twigs. The sycamore feather-sticks preformed well Photo: Sean Fagan. Splints: Dead sycamore wood can be split into many fine splints very thin lengths of wood which can be, with proper technique, ignited with a naked flame e. Part of the reason why sycamore can be finely split is because sycamore wood is often finely and evenly grained.

Try to make the splints as long and as thin as possible to facilitate ignition and always make plenty of them usually more than you think you need, especially during inclement weather. Splints are much easier to make than feather sticks which is worth remembering if you are having difficulty making feather sticks but can make good splints.

Experimenting with splints left and coarse shavings right from a sycamore branch that was unsuitable for feather-sticks. A match-lit fire was obtained from these splints and shavings Photo: Sean Fagan. Find beautiful Sycamore on Google images. Thermal Modification?

Why, where what and how by Wikipedia. What Wikipedia says about good old Acer Pseudoplatanus. Sycamore Acer Pseudoplatanus. Sycamore Sycamore is one of our favourite English timber species.

Description Sycamore trees are native to the UK, deciduous and fairly commonly found from well managed, sustainable woodland sources. Working With Sycamore For projects that require a clean, white colouring or a crisp, strong contrast or an almost stoney hardness then Sycamore deserves consideration.

Stock Sycamore is pretty much always in stock as boules and waney edge through and through boards.