Sycamore is classified as moderate in weight hardness stiffness and shock resistance.
American sycamore woodworking. The wood is hard and almost impossible to split so it has. Wild birds eat the seeds including purple finches goldfinches chickadees and dark eyed juncos. The american sycamore is susceptible to anthracnose. Often the wood has served more humbly for items such as pallets which don t require.
The fine hardwoods selectorama describes american sycamore heartwood as â pale reddish brown colored â others call the heartwood a light to dark brown. Its wood is hard with a twisted coarse grain. Sycamore is valuable as a timber tree. The sapwood is lighter in color and.
It turns well on a lathe and has good bending qualities. Furniture furniture parts drawer sides millwork paneling and moulding flooring kitchenware butcher blocks toys and fruit crates. Late to leaf in the spring their majestic gnarly branches and patchy ash gray bark have. And diameters in excess of 10 ft.
The wood because it imparts no odor or taste became butcher blocks cooperage and crates kitchenware and tobacco and cigar boxes. History in woodworking early fur trappers and traders in the mississippi and ohio river valleys frequently turned sycamore s massive trunk into long and wide freight canoes in which to ply the waterways. Although few woodworkers become acquainted with the wood of the american sycamore platanus occidentalis that wasn t always so. Larger trees provide nesting habitat for birds including wood ducks.
For years it was used as a secondary wood for drawer sides web frames etc if it was processed into furniture grade lumber at all. Back when the united states was still a new nation and its western frontier was just beyond the allegheny mountains sycamore was the giant of the forest. He offers charts comparing stability of sycamore vs. Common cabinet woods and a side article by alex waters of fine woodworking discusses uses and finishes.
American sycamore is something of a sleeper as far as native hardwoods go. Contemporary uses for american sycamore include lumber and veneer paneling interior trim furniture parts slack cooperage and fuel.