Exactly. I was working on a spoon last night that was made from very dry sycamore out of the log basket and it was such hard work. It is really stunning ripple sycamore and Robin couldn't bear to burn it so he made a spoon from it... and I was cursing him! It did look quite good at the end - I'll post a pic when it's oiled.
It is amazing how hard sycamore can get although when very green it is a dream to carve