Thanks to a friend, I’ve got 200 bf of 4/4 and 8/4 , mainly quarter sawn, “english sycamore”, much of it with beautiful fiddle back figure. And I’ve got a Wagner 605 pinless digital display moisture meter.
Problem?
I need the specific gravity of this stuff in order to get a good reading from the meter. Problem is, “english sycamore” isn’t actually a sycamore at all – it’s a maple. I’ve searched through several wood identification books and googled myself silly and haven’t found two sources that agree on the latin name of “english sycamore”, let alone its specific gravity.
The wood is hard and heavy – like “rock maple” and almost white – a slight cream color actually. From my research, “english sycamore” is also called “European Maple” or “Sycamore Plane”, the former “acer campestre” with a SG of 0.66 and the latter “acer pseudoaplatanus” with a SG of 0.61 a difference of 7-8 % depending on what you use for the denominator. But if it’s Acer saccharum or Acer Negrum, aka Hard or Sugar Maple for the former, Black Maple if the latter, the Specific Gravity is 0.72. That’s 18% denser than Acer pseudoplatanus.
SO – does this forum allow images to be posted somewhere and if so where? Would like to post a close up of the end grain, the fiddle back and a plain/riff sawn figure and see if someone here can point me to the correct identification – and specific gravity of this stuff. Please. Please. Pretty Please?
Replies
Sound like a horrible dillema to me. Maybe you should just pack the stuff up and send it to me.
Seriously.......yes there is a method to attach pictures to your posts here. While you are in the composition window, there is a button to "attach files". Just follow the prompts -- but be aware that once you hit the 'upload' button, you'll need to wait a few minutes before you get the 'complete' response. And if you don't wait, then you didn't attach the files.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
Charlie, English sycamore is simply sycamore that grew in England. It's a species native to Central Europe, the UK and Western Asia. There are several local names for the stuff, e.g., sycamore plane, great maple (in the UK); it's often called plane in Scotland. Its Latin name is Acer pseudoplatanus.
In character and performance it's similar to Acer saccharum, Rock or Hard maple although Hard maple has a somewhat higher specific gravity (SG) of ~0.72 and European sycamore has an SG of ~0.61.
Much of this you've already discovered, so I'm merely confirming what you've said. I'd just stick your meter on the surface and get a reading. That's usually more than good enough to get an idea of the moisture content. I don't understand the importance of knowing the SG so precisely. Please explain why?
Of course, if you need to find out exactly the MC of the wood you should revert to using the oven drying method and do the sum,
(WW-ODW) / ODW X 100 = MC%,
where WW = Wet Weight, and ODW = Oven Dry Weight. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
I'd also be interested in knowing why the SG is so important for estimating the moisture content of the wood. I have an Electrophysics moisture meter, and it would be very handy to know how to 'correct' the readings for other species that are not included in the species correction chart that came with the meter. Perhaps the SG is a way to do this?For example, madrone, horse chestnut, crabapple, pear, deodar cedar, . . .
I've used ES quite a bit--it's a great wood. It is indeed a member of the Maple family (Aceraceae); the SG according to Hearne Hardwoods is 0.66.
You should work it like curly maple, though in my experience the wood is slightly easier to plane. I'd still dampen the boards before running them through a planar to reduce tearout.
Best thing would be to ship it to me and I'll tell you how it went...
LOL..... chancer.. ;)
you're right though... it's fine stuff to work, although I've never needed to dampen it to work it... my handraulics usually ends up making it wet enough....Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
To calculate SG, cut a rectangular solid of the stuff, measure it, multiply length x width x thickness, weigh it, then divide the weight into the volume. Voila! You have its density from which you can calculate SG or about as close as you can get it.
Cadiddlehopper
Edited 11/26/2006 4:54 am ET by cadiddlehopper
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