SYCAMORE
BOTANICAL NAME: Platanus spp, of the family Platanaceae, especially P. occidentalis but also including P. racemosa and P. wrightii. Reports state that Platanus is composed of five to nine species which grow in Eurasia and North America. All species look alike microscopically.
NOTE: there is a wood, usually called "English sycamore", that is sometimes called just "sycamore" (especially in Great Britain) but that wood (Acer pseudoplatanus) is what in the USA we call maple and is unrelated to the wood on this page, which is the wood that we call sycamore or what in Great Britain is called lacewood or plane or planetree. To further make things interesting, there is an Australian wood called lacewood that is unrelated to either of these other woods and of course what the Australians call maple is not part of the wood family that in the USA is called maple, but instead is part of the satinwood family. I could go on and on but it just gets silly. Are we having fun yet?
COMMON NAMES: The name "ghost tree" is used because of the large mottled effect of the bark. If you've ever seen one at twilight, among other more uniform colored trees, you'll get the picture, although personally I have always thought of it as the "camouflage tree" rather than the "ghost tree" because the bark looks pretty much identical to the mottled camouflage dress worn by the American army.
Other common names include (shown by species):
Platanus occidentalis --- American plane, American planetree, American sycamore, American western plane, Butterwood, Buttonball, buttonball-tree, buttonwood, California button, California sycamore, cotonier, ghost tree, lacewood, oriental planetree, oriental sycamore, plane, planetree, plataan, quartered sycamore, sycamore, water beech, whitewood and Virginia maple
Platanus racemosa --- aliso, buttonball, buttonball-tree, buttonwood, California planetree, California sycamore, planetree, sycamore, western sycamore
Platanus wrightii --- alamo, Arizona planetree, Arizona sycamore, sycamore
TYPE: hardwood
COLOR: light tan to Reddish brown heartwood, sometimes pinkish sometimes orangish, and whitish or cream colored sapwood. Reports on sapwood thickness vary from saying it is 1.5" to 3" thick to saying that it is 5 to 7 inches thick. I believe the lower numbers are more accurate.
GRAIN / TEXTURE / FILLER / FINISH / LUSTER: The wood has a fine close texture with interlocked grain. Contrasts well with other species. Most famous for the large ray flakes that show up quite dramatically on quartersawn surfaces. General finishing qualities are rated as good. It varnishes well, stains well, polishes very well, takes paint very well. Luster ranges from low to medium, with occasional interlocked grain pieces having a high luster. Reported to machine to a highly lustrous surface.
PROPERTIES / WORKABILITY: Moderate in weight, strength, hardness, stiffness and shock resistance, endwise compression, nail-holding ability and resistance to splitting.
Generally machines well, but requires high speed cutter heads to prevent chipping and it can be difficult to work due to interlocked fibers. The wood has little blunting effect on cutters. It glues well and takes nails and screws satisfactorily. Turns easily and finishes smoothly, although in my experience you have to keep your cutters sharp to avoid fuzzing. Sanding qualities are reported to be very poor, with fuzzing. My own experience is that it sand easily but definitely fuzzes up.
It is reported to respond very poorly to moulding operations but bores easily and mortises well. Moulding properties are moderate to good, as are the routing properties. It veneers easily
DURABILITY: Heartwood resistance to decay is reported to be very poor, and it should not be used in areas of high decay hazard. It is also mechanically nondurable and resistant to impregnation with preservative treatments, although some reports say the heartwood is moderately permeable.
STABILITY: little movement in performance.
BENDING: Generally reported as being able to take extreme bending and retain its bent shape after steaming although minority reports state that it has poor bending qualities.
ODOR / TASTE: no distinct odor or taste. One report says the the sycamore tree is tasteless, but I have never observed one doing or saying anything that seemed to exhibit poor manners.
SOURCES:
generally the Northeastern part of North America from South Carolina to Ontario, the tree reportedly prefers wet soils of stream banks, flood plains, and edges of lakes and swamps, and is a dominant species in mixed forests but I have personally observed it in many community settings that are far removed from lakes and swamps. It also grows less heavily as far south as Florida and out towards the central part of the USA.
USES:
Since it does not give off odors or taste and will not stain anything it is contact with, it is particularly suitable for use in making food containers. Its applications do not typically include outside uses, because the wood is susceptible to decay and insects.
Typically listed uses include: baskets, boxes (particularly small food containers), broom handles, brush backs, building materials, butcher blocks, cabinetry, casks, cigar boxes, containers, cooperages, crates, deck furniture, decorative veneer, drawer sides and bottoms, dressed boards, figured veneer, flooring, food containers, fruit crates, fuelwood, furniture (especially drawer sides), furniture parts, handles, high-end furniture, hull framing, interior construction, interior trim, jewelry boxes, joinery, kitchenware, knife handles, laminated turnings, lumber, millwork, mouldings, musical instruments, packing cases, pallets, paneling, paper, particleboard, pens, planking, plywood, posts, pulp wood, pulp/paper products, railroad crossties, railroad ties, rough boards/dimension stock, shipbuilding (bent members), timbering, toys, trim work, vehicle parts, veneer, and wainscotting
TREE: average height is 100 feet but can go up to 120 feet and with a diameter of up to 3 feet
WEIGHT: 35 pounds per cubic foot, give or take a couple
DRYING:
Reports on drying vary greatly, with some saying it dries fairly easily and quickly with only moderate shrinkage and few problems, others saying it is hard to dry because of large shrinkage and a tendancy to warp, split, check, and develop honeycomb.
AVAILABILITY: moderately to readily available
COST: inexpensive
TOXICITY: no reports
web quotes:
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The sycamore has the largest leaf of any tree native to North America.
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Early Uses:
Donald Culross Peattie writes about the tree in his book A Natural History of Trees of the Eastern and Central North America. "To the pioneer the sight of it was welcome, since in general its presence and enormous growth were correctly taken to denote rich soil. However, from its predilection for low grounds, where malaria also was harbored, it often worried the early prospectors."
Culross Peattie adds that sycamore was not strong in the position of beams or columns and had little resistance to decay, but its "wood was hard, fairly tough and almost impossible to split. The pioneer cut trunks of great dimension into cross-sections which he then bored through the center, to make primitive solid wheels for his ox cart. If the trunk was hollow, as it often was, he sawed it in lengths of three to four feet, nailed a bottom in it and so had a stout hogs-head for grain."
Sycamores can grow so wide that in pioneer days hollowed sycamores were used to house animals. Culross Peattie writes that most sycamores "over one hundred years old are hollow at the heart, which does not prevent the tree from continuing to expand through the years. Pioneers often stabled a horse, cow, or pig in a hollow sycamore, and sometimes a whole family took shelter in such an hospitable giant, until the log cabin could be raised." Hobbit note: I don't believe a word of this paragraph. Well, OK, I believe the word cow, but that's the only one.
OK, color me embarassed --- I have since discovered that there are historical records of extreme cases where sycamore trees reached up to 15 feet in diameter, so it is possible that a hollow one could have been used as a shelter.
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Sycamore is composed of 5 to 9 species which grow in Eurasia and North America. All species look alike microscopically. The common name “Sycamore” is used in England to designate a species in the Hard Maple Group (Acer pseudoplatanus), whereas Plane or Planetree is used to name the Platanus which grows there.
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The only way that it is attractive and useful for woodworking purposes is when it is quarter-sawn
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the wood is hard to season because it is unstable and tends to hold water. "Plain-sawn sycamore is unstable and will warp and move. Quarter-sawn wood does not have these problems
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Sycamore is nice to work: It is a hardwood, but it is not
as dense as some, although one must work the wood with
sharp tools to avoid tear out of the mottled quartered grain.
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Turning is best accomplished with rasps and coarse sandpaper to rough out before applying turning blades.