Sycamore

Nobody is responding because its like riding a moped or dating a fat chick. We've all done it but we dont want our friends to know.

Low on BTU's but it is good for shoulder season burning or just a quick warm fire.

I burn quite a lot of sycamore and have no problem with it at all. It seasons quite quickly and burns well. It does not burn as long as oak of course. Splitting straight bits is no problem but like any wood it is tough to split when there are forks. I believe It is a member of the maple family. I would never turn away free sycamore. Why don't you try burning some?

Edit to add:
It seems the American Sycamore may be a completely different tree to the European Sycamore so my comments may be misleading.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus_occidentalis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_pseudoplatanus

European Sycamore: "The wood is used for fuel, being easy to saw and to split with an axe, producing a hot flame and good embers when burnt."

I burn it occasionally. It's OK for the fireplace. It's brittle as all get-out so it splits pretty well and dries quickly. I think of it as a quick heater. Throw some in, get 'em burnin and then throw on the long burning stuff. Or if you're leaving and just want a quick fire use only sycamore.

The thing I really like it for is making coffee. You can use a sycamore stick about the size of your middle finger thrown in as you're roasting the beans and it'll give it a nice woody flavor. I use it when grilling too sometimes. Deeee-licious!

Sycamore is 770 on the janka scale, it should be ok to burn.

I actually like Sycamore, burns nice, not the greatest heat thrower but okay. When green it is HEAVY, when dry it is very light, a buddy of mine always says "it smells like wet cut grass" when splitting, and yes splitting can be a WAR!

first wood I ever scrounged, I thought I hit a goldmine. Not worth the effort and even with a splitter it tends to "mash" rather than split, kinda like elm. It dries fairly quick and loses tons of weight. I'll never take it again.

Rockey said:

Nobody is responding because its like riding a moped or dating a fat chick. We've all done it but we dont want our friends to know.

Low on BTU's but it is good for shoulder season burning or just a quick warm fire.

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I don't know anything about mopeds, but sycamore and fat chicks are just fine with me. Tends to be wet but splits easily, dries quickly and heats ok. I grab it whenever I can, as long as I'm not paying for it. Same for the sycamore. Manly

Manly said:

I don't know anything about mopeds, but sycamore and fat chicks are just fine with me. Tends to be wet but splits easily, dries quickly and heats ok. I grab it whenever I can, as long as I'm not paying for it. Same for the sycamore. Manly

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I see what you did there!


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Woody5506 said:

first wood I ever scrounged, I thought I hit a goldmine. Not worth the effort and even with a splitter it tends to "mash" rather than split, kinda like elm. It dries fairly quick and loses tons of weight. I'll never take it again.

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I agree. Sucks to split with a hydraulic splitter. “Mash” is an excellent description. Would never try to split by hand. Splits like butter with my kinetic splitter! Otherwise I see it as a mid-grade maple.


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Kevin Weis said:

I was only contemplating using what did not need to be split but wood fit just cut up into rounds. Kevin

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I say go for it.


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saewoody said:

I say go for it.


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I concur. Grab it with gusto!

(don't do it)

Woody5506 said:

(don't do it)

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I guess everybody's situation is different. Around these parts, you take whatever you can get. Wet, big and round, ugly, it doesn't matter. Even if it smells, you air it out then split it. As I get older, I am finding I have to take whatever and wherever I can get it. I don't what to get to a point where I have to pay for it. At that point I would probably hang it up. Just my thoughts.

I can afford to be picky, firewood isn't a hot commodity in my area since natural gas is so prevalent and many people have phased out wood burning. That's not to say there aren't scroungers like myself but often times "junk" wood will continually be reposted on Craigslist week after week. The more desirable woods don't last more than a few days, typically.

As far as smell, it's kind of a dank dumpy smell but nothing awful.

Manly said:

I guess everybody's situation is different. Around these parts, you take whatever you can get. Wet, big and round, ugly, it doesn't matter. Even if it smells, you air it out then split it. As I get older, I am finding I have to take whatever and wherever I can get it. I don't what to get to a point where I have to pay for it. At that point I would probably hang it up. Just my thoughts.

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Now that I see Manly is in CT like me, his POV makes perfect sense. There are definitely still plenty of rural and beautiful parts of the state left; but if you’re in the suburbs, like me, you take what you can get!


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Junk, not worth the effort

I burn it often and it burns very well. It needs to season as long as any hardwood for maximum BTU output.

Processing is very challenging. If you have a high tonnage splitter, that's the way I would handle it. I don't think it could be effectively/efficiently split by hand.

I had to take a big sycamore monster as "payment" for the rest of the nice ash I picked up from a tree service. Never again.

I ended up sawing most of it. Occasionally I could split off a piece if smaller than 4x4 size. I split the rest of the ash about twice as fast as the one sycamore log.

I would burn it. I have some in the barn now. Don't wait long to split. The longer you wait the harder it will be to split. I've heard stories of dry sycamore destroying splitters. It's good shoulder wood