Splitting Sycamore

[kestrel]

Just got done splitting some sycamore I brought back from a coworkers house who had a bunch of wood down and wanted to get it off his property. Got some ash, sugar maple, white oak, and beech in the deal but he also had a pile of sycamore he wanted rid of. After reading mixed reviews on it I was hesitant to take it, but was doing him the favor to get it off his property. I had read that it was horrible to split. I was out splitting this morning with a maul and found that although it is a bit difficult to split, it is definetely nowhere near elm as far as splitting difficulty. Also, the huge rounds are so light that I can lift them over my head and convince my kids that I have superhuman strength.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It's that superhuman strength that is helping you split it. :lol:


Matt

 

[SolarAndWood]

You are the man. I got some this fall and can't imagine splitting it by hand. There wasn't a straight round in the entire tree.

 

[Thistle]

Good luck. Its can be a real b*#ch to split,though frozen & green would be a bit easier.Interlocked grain almost as bad as American Elm.

 

[chinkapin_oak]

Sycamore is great firewood - don't underestimate it. In my opinion, it's the most underrated firewood out there. I don't think twice about taking free sycamore. I do have a hydraulic splitter, so splitting it is easy for me. On the downside, it does leave lots of ashes. But it's still one of my favorite woods.

 

[tfdchief]

It is not all the same either. I have had some that split easy and some that, well, split is not exactly what it did....crumble we be more like it. And sometimes it's better firewood than other times. I think Sycamore just varies a lot from tree to tree. My experience anyway.

 

[Thistle]

Very large old ones tend to hollow out quickly,early settlers & wildlife still used them for shelter.

 

[joshlaugh]

I like burning it in the fall and spring. The trees I had were almost as hard to split by hand as elm is.

 

[Mike821]

burn it and be careful as it heats up fast as heck. I had seven cords from one tree we took down at our place. 52" trunk.....what a beotch even with a good splitter.

 

[woodchip]

I love sycamore, everybody else round here avoids it, so I can pick up as much as I want.

I work on the basis that if you can survive on wood that everybody else ignores, you can carve out a good little niche for yourself