First time playing with sycamore wood. How does it dry??

[motolife313-2]

does this stuff like to wrap pretty bad? Not do pretty good when drying? I was under the impression it was a really dense wood and harder than oak. I’m surprised it only has 770 janka. I’ve got a lot I can mill off a couple big trunks. 48” diameter. Took a round home to see what the grain looks like. Nice looking stuff and clean looking. I may cut these in have for 1/4 sawn grain

 

[singinwoodwackr]

It is like soft Maple. Drys fast (firewood). Some of the figured stuff and crotches can be gorgeous.
I’ve not milled any boards so no help there.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

It’s heavy when wet and pretty light once dry. Fairly lousy firewood to boot. I’d be worried about warping or cracking after milling. Looks nice, Good luck.

 

[Woody912]

No experience with boards but it is the devil to split so I would expect warp to be a problem. I think they 1/4 saw it to use for cabinet wood. Not nearly as hard as oak.

 

[davidprivett]

I sawed a sycamore and got 17 inch wide x 12 ft. boards out of it , it dryed ok but even though I anchored sealed the ends they split over 1 ft. ,but still made some pretty wood. and it is on the soft side which your surface planer knives will enjoy eating over hickory. sands well takes oil finishes well too. I f you got a lathe it turns well and can have some interesting grainage.

 

[motolife313-2]

It’s heavy when wet and pretty light once dry. Fairly lousy firewood to boot. I’d be worried about warping or cracking after milling. Looks nice, Good luck.

Really heavy. That’s why I’m worried it will crack a lot when it loses all the water Inside. I’ve never moisture this high. I’ll probably mill some 4-6 footers. Be nice to just 4 so it’s easier to move them, thanks for the help guys

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Really heavy. That’s why I’m worried it will crack a lot when it loses all the water Inside. I’ve never moisture this high. I’ll probably mill some 4-6 footers. Be nice to just 4 so it’s easier to move them, thanks for the help guys

Do a search of other threads for sycamore - I've written quite a bit about my experience with it, and surprised a lot of people how nice it is. Sinks when wet there's so much water in it - otherwise not an especially heavy or dense wood when dry. For me the key to getting good drying results was sealing the ends, European stacking it, using a lot of straps, and constantly retightening it every week for the first few months (couple of times a week in the first month) as it wanted to shed water quickly and lose a lot of volume. It will move a lot if given the chance, so never give it a chance. My slabs were from a 9' x 30" log.

 

[motolife313-2]

Ok. I’ll look for your threads. I’ve never ratchet strapped my piles before. Probably be a good idea to do it

 

[buzz sawyer]

Quarter-sawn has some really nice rays. Some of the Victorian homes around here used it for decorative interior trim. To me, it works about like soft maple - as already said. Not rot resistant. Didn't have any drying issues but it was really straight grained.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Ok. I’ll look for your threads. I’ve never ratchet strapped my piles before. Probably be a good idea to do it

Toward the bottom of the first page of this thread I talked about it some and showed some pics. https://www.arboristsite.com/thread...-what-kind-of-tree-this-might-be-from.377479/
I hear from most folks they don't bother with sycamore or cottonwood because both have such enormous water content that they've had bad drying results. But I've had no problems with either. Think a lot of folks don't bother strapping or rarely retighten them if they do. It's the only hope for the more dimensionally unstable woods.

 

[motolife313-2]

Quarter-sawn has some really nice rays. Some of the Victorian homes around here used it for decorative interior trim. To me, it works about like soft maple - as already said. Not rot resistant. Didn't have any drying issues but it was really straight grained.

The left side of these slabs are quarter sawn, I was thinking about cutting them down to make them just quarter sawn so they are more stable and don’t warp as bad

 

[unclemoustache]

Tends to warp more than other woods, but it’s really awesome quartersawn. Any Sycamore I get now will only be quartersawn.

But I also made a large table from a huge cookie, which barely cracked at all. Will definitely be doing more cookies.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

The left side of these slabs are quarter sawn, I was thinking about cutting them down to make them just quarter sawn so they are more stable and don’t warp as bad

Actually that would give you rift sawn on those slabs (which is also nice and sometimes even more desirable). True quarter sawn is always going to be 90 degrees to the outside radius so technically the only quartersawn boards that can be made from flat sawn slabs are from the widest center slab with the pith cut out. Looking at the end face the grain orientation should be consistently near vertical for true quarter sawn. Some folks square off the log into a cant of the central 1/3 to 1/2 of the log and call all the boards cut from that (with the pith trimmed off) to be quartersawn. But outside of a professional sawmill I don't know how you can get true quarter sawn wood without a ton of effort. Chainsaw milling is always going to produce flat sawn slabs, and only a couple of the center ones can be trimmed to make quarter sawn pieces.