I found a fresh cut pile of american sycamore recently, and was planning
to use it for some practice turning green wood. I see sycamore trees in
my area all the time, but am not overly experienced with the wood. I
know it's a hard wood, and from what I've read, it's frequently used for
furniture, so I assume it's a long, straight grained wood that should
turn nicely.

So, I was wondering if any of you have experience turning sycamore? I'm
mostly concerned with health issues; I read that the seeds from sycamore
can cause skin irratation and respiratory problems.


American Sycamore (Platanus Occidentalis, aka Planetree) is a good turning
wood. In the UK, it is called maple (but is unrelated to what we call maple
(Acer)) and used extensively for treen. Sycamore has the unique quality of
being able to handle repeated saturations with water and not check. That's
why it is used so often for wooden spoons. I don't know if it was used to
make buttons, but its water qualities would mean you could leave the buttons
attached when washing shirts. Like Stemo says, it turns very well when
green. Dan