Sycamore!

[sawinredneck]

I have always split this crap seasoned. Not that much fun, it just explodes.
I got the great pleasure of dealing with some green wood today. 10' slabs, 30" rounds. Had to half them to get them on the splitter!
That was without a doubt the NASTIEST STUFF I HAVE EVER SPLIT!! I threw away a third of what I split up because it wasn't worth fighting all the knots in it for free wood! Crotch after crotch!!
I am beat! And the little bit of "lovely Elm" I got the pleasure of dealing with, was a quarter full of mudd!! I have MANY chains to sharpen.
It was a BANNER day!!

 

[tomtrees58]

yea thats fun wood tom trees:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[flotek]

theres a one hundred year old huge ass 80+ foot sycamore on some property i own and i was debating on cutting it for firewood but after reading and researching it this last week i decided it would be better to just leave it there for the shade ,burns poor and quick like poplar and terrible (maybe the worst)to split cut ,stack.

 

[Shmudda]

That wood is the worst wood to burn......I wouldnt want it for free......

Craig

 

[Mntn Man]

Is sycamore the tree that has the long skinny seed pods like a slimjim?

 

[Joshlaugh]

Sycamore is a tree that has the gray bark that peels off and leaves the white trunk highly visible. You usually see it along rivers and near water. really big leaf too. Once you recognize it, you will never forget it. As easy to identify as shagbark hickory. I got about 1/3 cord of sycamore back in November and didn't have any trouble splitting it. Maybe I was lucky?

 

[Mntn Man]

Yeah, I know about the upper bark being that way. There is a huge tree that looks like that near my house and I don't recall if it had the big leaves or not, but it does have a few of those seed pods on it. I thought there is a lot of firewood there, but if it splits like he11, I wouldn't want to deal with it. I saw that it has some holes in it near the top and it looks hollow. The trunk is probably 40 inches at least.

 

[RodneyG]

I've never saw one with seed pods but they do have balls on them.

 

[Mntn Man]

I've never saw one with seed pods but they do have balls on them.

Ok, yeah, I know what you are talking about. I wonder what kind of tree has the seed pods like this one does.

 

[sawinredneck]

Yeah, it's huge leaves, bark that comes off like leaves (greyish exposing the white tree ) and spiney balls about two times the size of cherries that are a sand color.
Dry, it shatters rather than splitting. I'd never split it green before.
Keep in mind it has about nothing but crotchesupon crotches to deal with, and these were 30" rounds which only compounded things.

 

[outdoorlivin247]

long skinny seed pods like a slimjim?

Catalpa or Locust...

 

[Mntn Man]

Catalpa or Locust...

Must be a catalpa, definitely not a locust. I'll try to find a pic of one online and see if that is it.

 

[Mike Van]

Theres a big 36"+ sycamore on the bank behind my garage. Messy, drops branches & sticks all the time. Wish it was a maple, at least I could tap it!

 

[J.W Younger]

I don't have many sycamores, mabey a dozen or so down on the se corner by the creeK. One thing I have noticed is the few I,ve dropped and left laying didn't seem to rot very fast.

 

[AOD]

All the ones around here look like crap. I tried hand splitting a little round of it once, maybe a foot across and a foot tall, and it tool 5 minutes with 3 wedges! Swinging a maul at that stuff it just laughs at you.

 

[flotek]

sycamore trees are usually huge they have huge leaves that look like maple times 10 fruit are balls the bark looks like gray and green patchy camoflauge it grows near water and creeks ,member of the maple family with pretty much none of the good heat btu value

 

[Hlakegollum]

sycamore trees are usually huge they have huge leaves that look like maple times 10 fruit are balls the bark looks like gray and green patchy camoflauge it grows near water and creeks ,member of the maple family with pretty much none of the good heat btu value

Yes, they are related to maple.

 

[spankrz]

theres a one hundred year old huge ass 80+ foot sycamore on some property i own and i was debating on cutting it for firewood but after reading and researching it this last week i decided it would be better to just leave it there for the shade ,burns poor and quick like poplar and terrible (maybe the worst)to split cut ,stack.

yup, best to leave it standing. doesent burn as fast as popular, but it STINKS when you burn it.

 

[unclemoustache]

Ugh - I would never burn Sycamore again. That junk leaves way too much ash after it's burned. I've got a huge tree on my property that drops lots of branches and I burn that in my outdoor fire pit during nice cool evenings, but never again will I put it in my stove. I never bothered to chop the branches - I just hit them against a stump and they would break wherever I wanted.

Josh

 

[Kydan]

Reading thread about sycamore and being it's related to maple. We have a tree at our farm house everyone thought it was maple when it was about 6 or 7 inch round, I never paid much attention, tell the wife mention the little fruit balls that's, when I determine it was a sycamore. It had me fooled but O' well that's me. Now she wants it cut. I'll burn the dang thing make ya appreciate a good smelling fire huh?...Lol