Green Sycomore tree question, those that have worked it.

it is great quarter sawn, sometimes called american lacewood. It works well once dry

We took one down last summer, it’s already dry.
I slabbed a bunch of it and most of it came out OK. Some did have twists and turns and warps and the grain spiraled, but mostly it was good to go once dry.

As said above, QS has great grain, although it can be brittle.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Get a metal detector if you don’t have one Randy. Trees from peoples yards may have had metal stuck in them.

20” at base? Not sure how fast this tree grows. Might Google it?

Be careful????? LOL!

-- Cau Haus Designs, Thomas J. Tieffenbacher

It looks great quarter sawn. It is fairly soft, and light weight. Seems to check easily. I have made several boxes from it, works well, looks great.

Thanks all

Thomas, it’s my tree and I know what’s been in it, unless my neighbors have been secretly stabbing nails in it :) though I do have a metal detector, thanks for the warning.

-- Randy - If I'm not on LJ's then I'm making Saw Dust. Please feel free to visit my store location at http://www.facebook.com/randy.blackstock.custom.wood.designs

Good luck!

-- Cau Haus Designs, Thomas J. Tieffenbacher

They ALWAYS have metal in them!

Sycamore has spiral grain, and flatsawn stock is very prone to twist ant warp. Quartersawn is more stable. The figure on the quartersawn face is beautiful.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

Without a doubt, have the trunk section sliced into quartersawn 5/4 lumber. I have a contact in Bastrop that will mill it up for fifty cents a board foot. Use other sections for your bandsaw log boxes. Why are you removing it? Looks like a healthy beautiful tree which would take ~forty years to replace. If the answer is the driveway, I would probably cut a few inches of concrete away.

-- Randy -- Austin, TX by way of Northwest (Woodville), OH

Randy, I’m tired….. of the limbs that fall from it having to pick them up, it’s a constant battle, the leaves are constantly at my front door galley and the fur balls, as for as the drive way it’s already toast, that tree has destroyed it so the driveway is to late for it, where it’s located it’s not getting the water it needs I only have 4’ of property there actually I think it’s getting to that point, I have several other trees on my lot, two red’s one bur, one mesquite and a redbud.

I may take you up on the milling, thanks

-- Randy - If I'm not on LJ's then I'm making Saw Dust. Please feel free to visit my store location at http://www.facebook.com/randy.blackstock.custom.wood.designs

It is a beautiful tree. Hope you make some sweet stuff from it.

-- Cau Haus Designs, Thomas J. Tieffenbacher

Randy, Quarter sawn sycamore is one of my very favorites! I’ve posted several projects using it that you can look at. I used sycamore to frame all the panels on the “Bullet” box I just posted. I don’t find it difficult to work with at all. It will have to be dried properly and kiln drying would be a lot quicker than air drying if that is an option.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

I repaired a three legged tea table for a friend. It had a mahogany pedestal with the three sycamore legs dovetailed into the pedestal. It was an awesomely beautiful combination. I make toys for my grandkids and grandkids of our friends. I made a pair of grasshoppers from a sycamore turning blank. I’ve made lots of grasshoppers, the sycamore ones were the best of all of them. If you decide to make some grasshoppers (or seals or other pull toys) mill a little bit of it to 6/4. I can’t comment on how difficult it is to work big pieces or that it twists and turns. I can comment that it makes eye-popping accents.

If it’s wood it’s worth keeping. :-)

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

You’ll want to have this professionally dried. It’s a difficult wood to keep straight. Works fine if well cut and dried. I’d get some paraffin and cut some bowl blanks and coat them wet. You could sell them on Ebay for 10-20$ each. Here is a fact sheet for you, http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/sycamore/sycamore%20fact%20sheet.htm

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

Blackie, after just one sycamore log, which I begged from a windfallen tree, I am a big fan. Definitely have it quarter sawn. You will get some fantastic grain that’s like no other in a domestic wood. If you’re lucky enough to find a fallen sycamore, take a log home and mill it to see if there’s any spalting. It’s fantastic.

-- --Dale Page