Has anyone here worked with Sycamore Maple? (the type that grows in the south along rivers, and wet sandy soiled areas) I have several hundred board ft of it, that I am going to sticker and dry in a kiln. Would like to put it to some use, as some of the boards have some really nice flecks in them.
Has anyone here attempted to build anything from this type of lumber?
Kruppt
Kruppt asks:
I've not found any yet, but references say it is used for turnery, bobbins, textile rollers,b rush handles and dairy utensils. Makes good flooring, furniture and cabinets. THere's a fiddleback figurfe that is supposed to look great in craft work.
Mostly European, but has naturalized in areas of the U.S.
Staining during drying is said to be a problem, prevented by starting drying quickly.
Works easily with sharp tools. Stains, paints, polishes and glues well.
Basically, use it and enjoy!
Charlie Self "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain
Thanks for that info Charlie. 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. I hope after the lumber has been dried, it retains this coloration some what. I think it would look nice myself, with like an amber shellac/wax finish over it, after toning it down a bit with a light stain, we will see. Thanks,
Kruppt
Kruppt notes:
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.
Looks like what I know to be Sycamore. Sawn wet it looks orange but the color goes away as it dries. Here's some images of it - a few pics with the very distinctive bark.
Handle of the bow saw is sycamore from The Sentinal Tree
charlie b
Kruppt responds:
snip
except for the color. On my monitor, the color came up with a lot of yellow, which is not sycamore's shade. As I said, silvery white to tan, often in the same board width, in quartersawn lumber.
I hope you had yours quartersawn, as sycamore moves a lot when flat sawn.
Charlie Self "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain
Yes, the lumber I have sawn is an orange white combination mainly, there are some that be very yellow also. I won't know what the real color is going to be, till I have dried the lumber. The coloration of lumber can change a lot when dried, and if exposed to sunlight/UV's it can alter the color quite a bit I imagine.
I believe this is the type of lumber I have: Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) Other Names Also known as American sycamore, American plane tree, buttonball, buttonwood, and water beech. Some of it is QS, but most is flatsawn. When I did not see the desired effect when cutting out the center sections of the first log I lost hope of the wood being real useful for finer wood working, so the rest ended up flat sawn. (other than the center boards of each log) I have 6 more logs from this same tree yet to saw ,(double Y trunked tree) and I shall quarter/rift saw these for sure. Charlie b has given me an idea. I will use limb sections to experiment with first, before cutting the remaining logs. I think I could experiment cutting these limb sections at various angles to the grain, to find the best angle of cut, to produce the most desirable looking grain patterns. Then cut the remaining logs accordingly. Since sycamore tends to move a lot, I will weight the stickered stack heavily. Thanks for the shout,
Kruppt
The limbs of the tree I have started sawing look exactly like the limb sections you show in the pictures. The color is the same also. Interesting story there on the Sentinal tree by the way.
Thanks, Kruppt
acer pseudoplantanus? Not related to maple. The english/europian sycamore is related to maple.
KL
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