Sycamore Firewood: How Good is It Compared to Other Wood?

Sycamore is one of the most unusual looking trees out there, but it’s a common hardwood which can grow quite large. This raises the question:

Is Sycamore good firewood?

Sycamore is relatively poor firewood. It has a low heat output of 24.1 million BTUs per cord of seasoned wood, which is much lower than denser hardwoods like Hickory and Oak. Sycamore can also be difficult to split and it produces a moderate level of smoke.

Now, does this mean you should never burn Sycamore firewood? No!

It’s not going to hurt anything to burn Sycamore, and if it’s common in your area, you can definitely use it. Sycamore is just not as good as many other types of firewood, and below we’ll go into the details of why.

Sycamore vs. Other Firewood

To help you get an idea for how Sycamore compares to other types of firewood, we’ve put together a graphic below, which provides a snapshot of some of the most common types of firewood in our area (in the Midwest USA), and they are divided into 3 levels of quality.

The top tier (top of the pyramid) is the absolute best firewood you can burn, whereas the bottom of the pyramid is the firewood that will still produce heat, but is not ideal because of low heat output, excessive smoke, difficulty splitting, or some other reason.

This ranking is not an arbitrary list, and it’s actually based primarily on data from several university extension offices.

To learn more about the data sources, you can read the note below the image. Now, here it is!

The information in this image is based largely off of data from the following sources: Utah State University Forestry Extension, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, University of Illinois Extension, University of Missouri Extension, South Dakota State University Extension. In addition, where there was missing data (only a few occasions), I’ve used my own experience to round out the data.

That gives you an idea of where Sycamore is in comparison to other types of firewood, and in the following section, we’ll highlight 6 important considerations for burning Sycamore firewood. Let’s go!

The 6 Burn Qualities of Sycamore

1. Heat Output vs Other Firewood

As mentioned above, Sycamore is not a good performer on heat output. To give you a clearer view of this, I compiled some side-by-side numbers.

Check out the table below to see a more data-driven comparison of the heat output for 15 common firewood species’.

Sycamore is marked with bold text below. (Note: data sources are mentioned beneath the infographic above).

Heat Output of Common Firewood

Species	BTUs	Weight/Cord (lbs)
Black Locust	29.3	4192
Hickory	28.5	4072
Beech	27.5	3760
Oak (White)	26.4	3776
Mulberry	25.8	3712
Ash	24.2	3472
Maple (Hard)	23.9	3408
Black Walnut	22.2	3192
Pine (Southern Yellow)	22	2936
Birch	20.8	2992
Sycamore	24.1	2872
Black Cherry	20.4	2928
Elm	20	2872
Maple (Soft)	19	2752
Aspen	18.2	2160

Heat output is definitely an important characteristic for firewood, but it’s not the only thing that matters. There are a few other factors, that will affect how good the wood is for heating or for outdoor campfires.

Next up, let’s look at smoke output.

2. Amount of Smoke

Sycamore is in the middle of the spectrum here. It doesn’t produce a lot of smoke, but it produces more smoke than many of the top tier firewoods like Ash and Oak.

On the other hand, Sycamore produces less smoke than a few other types of firewood, like Hard Maple and Pine.

High smoke production may also be a sign that wood is not fully dried, and you want to make sure that you’re always properly seasoning your wood before burning it. Jump down to this section to learn more about seasoning.

3. Does it Spark?

Some types of firewood pop or spark really badly, which may not seem like an issue at first, but it can actually be a big problem.

Wood that sparks heavily can create significant fire hazards, which can cause problems in both open-air (e.g. outdoor) and enclosed fireplaces. Mulberry is an example of a wood that sparks heavily.

Sycamore produces minimal sparks, so it’s actually a really good performer in this category and is not as likely to cause fire hazards. However, it’s still a good idea to monitor any type of open-air fire.

4.Smell or Fragrance

Some types of firewood are famous for having a nice fragrance. Cherry and Hickory are both great examples of this. Since smell is so closely associated with flavor, fragrant woods are also used for barbeque and smoking meats.

But what about Sycamore? The short answer is “meh”. Sycamore will produce a fine, campfire-like smell. And it definitely doesn’t smell bad like Buckeye or Ailenthus, which both smell terrible when burned.

However, you’ll never hear anyone say that Sycamore is their favorite smelling firewood.

If you want to have the best smelling campfire of your life, you should definitely check out our article on the 11 best smelling types of firewood.

5. Does it Produce Coals?

Another factor that is commonly used for rating firewood is “coaling”. When any kind of firewood burns it produces coals, and the quality of the coals produced has a big impact on how long (and how well) the fire will continue burning.

Firewood that is on the top of the list for BTU output, tend to have very good coaling properties. For Sycamore, the coals are pretty good, but not great.

Cherry and Elm, which both have lower heat output, actually produce better quality coals than Sycamore.

6. Creosote Build-Up

If you’re using a fireplace or wood stove in your home, another important thing to consider is the maintenance of your chimney, and specifically preventing creosote build-up.

If you’ve not heard of creosote before, it’s a side product of burning wood, and it’s basically a black tar that is gradually deposited by wood smoke on the inside walls of a chimney.

Creosote isn’t a problem in small quantities, but if it gets built up, it can be quite dangerous. Build-up of creosote can reduce the ventilation of your chimney, and it’s also HIGHLY flammable, which can cause chimney fires.

To prevent creosote build-up, it’s important to properly maintain your stove and to have your chimney cleaned regularly.

In addition, you should only ever burn wood that is thoroughly seasoned (dried), because wet wood produces more creosote. Another big factor is the type of wood you’re burning.

In general, firewood that is very sappy will produce much more creosote build-up than firewood that is not as sappy.

Most hardwood firewood, including Sycamore, have low sap levels and produce less creosote than very sappy firewood like Pine.

Speaking of Pine, it’s probably the worst type of wood when it comes to creosote build-up. Many people, including my family, completely avoid burning Pine in wood stoves as a result.

Burn Quality Overall Comparison

Alright, now that we’ve covered the 6 most important burning qualities for Sycamore, let’s boil it down to the biggest highlights.

Sycamore has low heat output compared to other common firewoods, so it’s not the top choice if heating is your goal.
Sycamore produces pretty good coals, but many other types of firewood produce better quality coals, such as Oak, Cherry and Maple.
Sycamore is difficult to split compared to many other types of wood, including Oak, Ash, Maple, and Pine.

Next, let’s touch briefly on identifying Sycamore firewood.

Identify Sycamore Firewood Easily

There are 3 straightforward ways to identify sycamore firewood. One of them requires a leaf, but the other two approaches do not, because you won’t always have a leaf available when you’re trying to identify the wood.

When you look at a Sycamore log, probably the first thing that will grab your attention is the unique bark patterns.

You can see this in the photo, but Sycamore has light flaky bark, and underneath it has a whitish-green layer that almost makes the tree look naked. This is unique, and to me, its the easiest way to identify Sycamore.

If you’re not confident in this approach, there’s another great trick you can use. Sycamore is one of only 2 trees in our area, where you can see “rays” on the end grain with the naked eye.

Rays are lines from the center of the wood to the outside, that run perpendicular to the annual rings, which you can use to count the age of a tree. So if you see rays, then it’s either Sycamore or Oak.

The way you can distinguish between the rays of Sycamore and the ones on Oak is that for Sycamore they are small and close together. Whereas with Oak, they are more prominent and spread out.

If neither of these techniques works for you, then you can always go back to the leaf. See the photo below.

Sycamore leaves are “simple-alternate” which means they grow on branches in an alternating pattern (e.g. left-right-left), and each leaf grows individually (e.g. it is not a single leaflet in a larger compound leaf).

To be honest, you probably don’t need that level of detail, because Sycamore leaves are HUGE and relatively easy to distinguish from other leaves here in the Midwest USA.

Sycamore leaves have a shape that somewhat resembles a Maple leaf, but they are much larger in size. Alright, now let’s move on to our final topic!

Seasoning Sycamore Firewood

In general, firewood will take at least 6-8 months to fully season and for denser hardwoods, this process can take even longer. You should expect it to take 6-12 months to season Sycamore firewood.

For wood to be “seasoned” basically just means that it’s thoroughly dried, and you should always plan to burn firewood that is completely seasoned.

Exactly how long it will take depends on several factors, including the climate where you’re located (e.g. wood dries faster in Texas than in Oregon), and if you’ve properly split and stacked the wood.

In order to expedite the process, and to get your firewood seasoned as quickly as possible, use the following tips for fast drying:

5 Tips for Seasoning Firewood Fast

1. Split the firewood

firewood dries WAY faster when it is split into pieces, rather than sitting in log-form. Think about it, when the wood is split more surface area is exposed to the wind and sunshine, which are the primary contributors to dry wood.

2. Elevate the firewood

You may do a double take here, because a lot of people don’t do this step due to the extra effort required. And I’ll admit, this isn’t absolutely essential, but if you put your stack of firewood up on some pallets or perpendicular planks, it will increase airflow beneath the firewood stack and will accelerate your drying time.

3. Stack the firewood

To optimize your drying time, you should stack your firewood neatly in a location that will maximize the amount of sunshine and airflow. For example, stack the wood away from buildings (out of the shade), and point the face of the stack (not the ends) towards the direction from which you get the most breeze.

4. Leave space between rows

if you make multiple stacks of firewood, each stack should be separated by at least a few inches for airflow. This will allow both stacks of wood to dry better.

5. Cover (optional)

If your wood pile is outside you can put a cover or tarp over the stack to drain any rain/snow. Just make sure that it doesn’t totally block airflow from the side of the stack, otherwise it will trap in moisture and make seasoning take longer.

If you want to learn more about seasoning firewood, you should take a look at this article. And if you’re wondering if you can stack and dry your firewood in a shed or garage, you might want to check out this article.