I just returned from Egypt where the Ancients split GRANITE to make obelisks and other monuments. I was amazed to find that they accomplished this by (a) drilling a series of holes, I’d guess about 3/4″” in diameter and about 2″ apart; (b) placing a sycamore peg in each hole and (c) soaking the pegs with water so they expanded to split the rock.
WoW! What power. Does anyone use sycamore currently or does this expansive power eliminate it as a wood for furniure?
Jerry – now a humbled man.
Replies
Jerry, I've got about 50 bd.ft. of QS sycamore sitting in my garage. I need to make a some tables one of these days. I've only used it for desk accessories so far. It does have wonderful figure and is supposed to be stable. Around here it is a cheap hardwood. It does mill easy but does fuzz some. I've used oil & poly for finish and it turned out great. I think that for funiture like tables and such, it should work good.
Chance
Actually, sycamore is often favored for drawer components (sides, backs and bottoms)- I would thing it pretty stable,
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
In quartersawn configuration, it has a lot of figure. I've used a bit of it and had no problems, other than it does tend to chip out a bit on the planer due to interlocking grain. I also found out the hard way that it does not steam bend well. I had a 90% failure rate on a set of shaker oval boxes that I was trying to make for Sycamore HS graduates.
Around here (midwest) it's dead cheap.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/Techsheets/HardwoodNA/pdf_files/plataneng.pdf
Regarding wood movement: Apparently that lesson is lost on SE Asia furniture manufacturers. I see cracked stuff all the time.
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