I don't have hydraulics so I have to pass on woods like sycamore and elm. Nice catch there. Looks to be a good amount of wood there.
I've been wondering about sycamore for awhile now. How does it burn? I looked up the BTU charts but those don't give you an idea on how long it burns. I read it's really wet, takes long to dry, smells bad, etc. I can't tell if those are whiny low T guys or legitimate grievances. Most of the sycamore I have is near the creek and wet springs on the lower hillsides but it's definitely not one of the more common trees on my property. I have a couple of monsters near the top of a cove in a wet spring area..roughly 5' dia. I just like admiring the size and age of the trees when I'm up there hunting.
I have an OWB, so my three main goals for wood are easy to get to, free and flammable. And this sycamore fit all three. But to answer your question, sycamore does often grow by water sources, and when green as this was, is as heavy as most hard woods you would cut. You do generally need hydraulics to split it, as it is stringy and a rough go otherwise. Most of what I cut in that load will just go in whole anyway. If you do split and season it, it will become about like seasoned maple. There is a market with craftspeople for sycamore. A lot of guys turn things from it, and some still use it for flooring etc... because it has neat grain. Especially if it has any spalting. So for a big tree, you may find someone who would like it for lumber. But if not in the way and you don't need them down for any reason, they will last a long time. And since its not in your yard, you won't have to deal with the general mess they make dropping small branches and their outer layer of bark every year.
Not being a milling guy I can only speak from what I've heard some woldworker friends say. And that is sycamore lumber tends to warp badly as it seasons unless quarter sawed. That, it's difficult, if not impossible, to split by hand, and it can survive indefinitely in standing water is the extent of my knowledge of sycamore.
I don't know about standing water but the only sycamore I know of on my woodlot definitely has wet feet. It stands on the edge of a creek threatening to fall in but is about 30 inches DBH so it has been there quite a while.
Hey Greg, if you put logs in of that size do you have to season them for even longer or will the OWB still burn them with a relatively high moisture content? Also, out of curiosity how much do you feed the OWB each Winter?
I burnt a load of sycamore in my OWB last fall was getting 24hr burn time seemed to burn well, Very hard to split very splintery. If you do split it wear gloves.
I try to season everything some, and usually have lean to filled by end of April. It's open on three sides and has a green metal roof, so it does a pretty good job drying. A lot of what I have has sat for a year or more cut but not split. So I don't worry too much for stuff I burn in OWB. I heat 5000 sf, with a third of that below grade. From roughly 10/1 thru end of April, plus all domestic. About 14-16 cords, but only what is free, so everything from oak to maple, and an occasional pine. And looks like next year some sycamore. It is in my way so will stack and split so that I'm not getting to it until March or April next year
I lined all the walls of my cabin with quartersawn sycamore. It was alot of work, but it does look awsome. You can dig up the pics in the milling section. I tried to use the tops for firewood, but wasnt worth splitting. Use it for wildlife cover instead.
