Just scored a tree service load of White Oak, Hickory, and Sycamore. I have never burned any Sycamore before, anyone have any opinions on it? I'll find out in a year on my own I know however, I would like to know if it sparks, smells good or bad etc etc while it burns. Thank you very much in advance.
I burned quite a bit over the years... I think it's one of the hardest to split by hand. Dries really quick, medium BTU's but not the lowest for sure. No sparks, no smell. I would take sycamore all day long for great shoulder wood, but if you split by hand, I would probably pass if it's a really big tree with a bunch of crotch pieces... If you have a splitter, take all you can get.
I agree with finatical1. I burn it, it does make a fair amount of ash but I’ll deal with it in shoulder season. I always try to split soon after it’s cut. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah I have my little splitter so I only split by hand when I feel like a workout so I will enjoy the haul. Thanks guys.
Yep, what they said. Burns about like soft Maple, which it is related to. Splits a little hard, but better than Cottonwood, Willow, or Popple by quite a bit. Come October & November you'll like it.
I found that it burned about like soft maple but was very stringy when splitting, wear gloves as it does splinter.
This is dead on. Another annoying part besides it being hard to split is that it's also very heavy when green, well over 100% water content.
Well right now I only have about 10 cords of wood that is all recently split (within 9 months) so I don't have a huge supply as I think I will go through 6 cords per year, maybe more. I can't really be picky on the free wood yet. until I get a solid three year supply I am taking almost anything other than willow. Point taken though once I get a good, larger supply, I can be picky and will probably turn down sycamore etc. At least two of my cords are cotton wood and aspen so ... do the math. I have a lot of oak, black locust and cherry but too much shoulder stuff right now. I am working on it. Only had the property I'm on for a year so I can't wait to keep on the harvesting road.
Sycamore was my first big scrounge ever and I thought I hit the jackpot. I'll never mess with the stuff again. Most of it sat around about a year until I bought my splitter. Now it's all pretty seasoned and extremely light compared to what it was, so yes it has tons of water weight. I won't rain on your parade though, this is only my opinion. I have seen Sycamore that split clean and easy, but I'm not really willing to try it out again. Been there done that, and there's too much other better wood around here.
Over 100% water content...wouldn't that mean its totally water...actually, over 100% would be some kind of super water! Or maybe heavy water I have no useful input regarding Sycamore...
I understand completely, I've got oak that only has a little rim left that I took when I first started out. Good luck on continuing to build your hoard.
Of Wood and Moisture | Summer 2012 | Articles| Features Moisture content varies from species to species. In some softwoods, green boards can be three times heavier than oven-dried ones. That’s a moisture content of 200 percent, which seems counterintuitive. I’ll explain that number in a bit. But contrast it with white ash, which has a moisture content of about 45 percent, and it’s easy to see why white ash is the wood of choice if you need to burn green wood in your stove. People who work with wood, whether constructing buildings, making furniture, or laying floors, can do a better job if they consider how the wood may change size and shape as its moisture content changes. Understanding how moisture content is measured in wood is the first step. For lumber, plywood, and similar wood products, the moisture content of wood is calculated using this formula: Moisture content = (wet weight – oven dry weight) x 100% ------------------------------------------------------------ oven dry weight This formula is counterintuitive: if more than half the weight of a piece of wood consists of water, you end up with a moisture content over 100 percent, and how can the water in a piece of wood be more than 100 percent? The beauty of this formula, however, is that it uses a constant for any piece of wood, the oven dry weight, as the basis for comparison to determine moisture content.
