Sycamore Flooring?

[Magicman]

Yes, I have an abundance of Pecan trees, but I have no plans to saw any of them.  I'm loaded up and will go over to the Cabin tomorrow for most of next week.  I plan to scout around for some easy Sycamore trees.  I know that I "red flagged" several before the last logging, but they were all close to the creek.  I'll just have to look and see.  If none are easily available, I'll go to plan "B", whatever that is.

I do still have 3 Cherry logs that I have not skidded out.

[Kansas]

I think with today's finishers and hardeners, you can use about anything. Being I wanted to have my house as a showcase for wood and a selling point, I did a different floor or steps in every room. About 9 varieties in all.  The softest I used was cottonwood. The hardest was either the hickory or the white oak. If I would have had time, looking back, I wish I had spiked the floor with some other species.

[Norm]

Ok Kansas enough teases! 

Let's see some pictures of those floors. 

[WDH]

I second that motion.

[metalspinner]

QS sycamore flooring...

A forest of sycamores to saw it from...

You're gonna need 'em.  Saw 3x's what you think you will need. 

My favorite feature of QS sycamore, aside from the ray fleck  , is your ability to combine it with other woods. There are so many colors in sycamore that it compliments many species. It would be really cool to lay a mixed floor of  a bit of cherry, a dash of walnut, just a pinch of maple, with Sycamore holding it all together.  What the heck!?!  That would be a sawyer's floor!

[LOGDOG]

I'm a big fan of those mixed floors myself. The contrast of the mixed woods actually seems to highlight the uniqueness of each individual species that much more.

[scsmith42]

The secret to minimizing degrade on sycamore is as follows:

1 - get a high quality end sealer on the ends of the logs the same day that they are felled.

2 - mill the logs ASAP after felling, quartersawing as much if not all of the wood.

3 - DO NOT AIR DRY!  Instead, get the boards into a low temperature kiln ASAP after milling.

When FF member Dad2nine and I have milled/dried QS Sycamore together, our degrade has been very low - probably less than 2%.

It helps if you do the felling and milling in the fall/winter/early spring too.

[Dodgy Loner]

It helps if you do the felling and milling in the fall/winter/early spring too.

But it's early summer and the Magicwoman is cracking the whip!

[Magicman]

I did a bit of looking     There is one 24"+ Sycamore that I can fairly easily harvest.  It has vines and I can't see what length logs will be available.  The other available Sycamores are in the 15" range which will not yield much QS.

After I get the roof on the Cabin Addition, I'll concentrate on the flooring logs.