American Sycamore Firewood

Here's a surprise for you. A green cord of American Sycamore weighs over 5,000 lbs. That's 5,096 lbs to be exact, which is one of the heaviest green weights you'll see on any firewood species. So if someone offers you a truckload of fresh-cut sycamore, make sure your suspension can handle it.

Once it's dried down to about 2,890 lbs per cord, you're looking at 17.9 million BTU. Not earth-shattering, but respectable enough to earn a "good" overall rating. Compare it against other mid-range hardwoods on our firewood BTU chart and you'll see it holds its own.

Splitting is rated difficult, which tracks with my experience. Sycamore has interlocking grain that likes to fight back, and the bigger rounds can be really stubborn. Start from the edges and work your way in, or just use a splitter and save your shoulders.

With that massive green-to-dry weight difference, you know seasoning takes patience. Plan on 12 to 18 months, and err toward the longer end for pieces bigger than 6 inches across. That's a lot of water to evaporate, over 2,200 lbs of it per cord. Stack it where it gets sun and breeze.

Sycamore is common across the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast, especially near rivers and bottomlands. It's a decent shoulder-season wood or mixing wood, producing few sparks and good coals. Similar burning profile to Hackberry firewood, another bottomland hardwood that's easy to find but often overlooked.