The American ones that I know of,
Platanus racemosa, the California sycamore or western sycamore, and Platanus wrightii, the Arizona sycamore, don't have timber like ours. Our Sycamore has fine grain, that is food safe, easily worked.
"Sycamore is the largest of the European maples. It is a plain but attractive timber, with a white to cream colour, which darkens to a gold colour over time.
Excellent working properties - Sycamore is easily worked, can be cut in any direction and produces an excellent finish. It also has excellent bending properties and can be easily stained which makes sycamore an excellent choice for furniture and internal joinery. Traditionally in Scotland, fine boxes for trinkets and snuff were made from sycamore wood, sometimes in conjunction with dark laburnum. The spectacular wavy grained or "rippled" sycamore is generally used for making musical instruments and very fine furniture.
Clean, non-tainting properties - Its clean white appearance and smooth finish means that sycamore is ideal for use in food preparation areas like kitchen table tops, work tops and butchers’ blocks, rolling pins and bread boards (traditionally it was used for turned bowls, platters and tableware). It is also used to make rollers for textile machinery because it is both hardwearing and never stains the cloth. "
while the American ones,
"Sycamore works easily with both hand and machine tools, though the interlocked grain can be troublesome in surfacing and machining operations at times. Sycamore turns, glues, and finishes well. Responds poorly to steam bending.
Not to be confused with European Sycamore—which is actually a species of maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)—Sycamore is sometimes referred to as “American Plane” in Europe."
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