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Sweet Gum

Started by Randy, January 20, 2005, 01:57:34 PM

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Randy

Question's Again!! I am reading a fair amount on here about sweet gum. I have a fair amount on my farm but I have not even considered cutting any of it, but you fellow sawyers make it sound as though I should. OK Give me some imput on this and how should I saw it(quarter, flat)? Is it bad to warp while drying?  What would be the best application to use it in construction? Thanks Randy

Ga_Boy

Randy,

Sweet Gum can be used for many things.

I am cutting some for resale and some I am cutting to use as bolsters to stack and sticker wood on.

Do not discount Sweet Gum it can be sold.



Mark
10 Acers in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Tom

I think that Sweet Gum is one of the most forgotten or undiscovered cabinet woods in the USA.  It is gorgeous stuff, having a light colored sapwood and a red to reddish brown heart.  The unfortunate thing is that it has locked grain and appears to grow  to the right sometimes and then to the left sometimes.  That probably has a lot to do with the prettiness of the boards but it also makes it a little difficult to dry.  

I cut Sweet Gum a minimum of 5/4 and air dry it in a pole barn out of reach of rain and sun.  My success has been good.  You have to be careful of insects though.  Powder Post beetles and the like certainly like it and will attack it on a moments notice.

You may bring up the subject of Sweet Gum to a cabinet maker and he won't know what you are talking about.  He might even tell you that it is a junk wood and he wouldn't waste his time on it.  But, ask him what he thinks of Red Gum and his mouth will water.  "you find some and I'll buy it", he might say.  Well, Red Gum is nothing but the heartwood of Sweet Gum.  The Sapwood is called White Gum or Sap Gum. Both are marketed separately and cherished by those in the know.

I have a barn full of 20" wide Sweet Gum boards that were gained by sawing through and through.  Both the flat sawed and vertical grain are pretty in their own right and have dried flat. I have noticed beetle attacks in the sapwood of the top layers but nothing in the middle of the stack.  I can trim the damage if I want, or just use it as buggy wood.  I kind of like the effect.  I'll have to make sure that there are no active larvae or living eggs in the boards when I use it.  I'll probably cook it.

These boards are for my own use and it would take someone with deep pockets to relieve me of them.  My computer desk has a top made from some of them.  It isn't finished but has been planed and rubbed with Johnson's Paste Wax.  Where my hands rest on either side of the keyboard, it has darkened from the oil and is becoming polished.  I wish I could get that same effect over the entire board.surface.  The twisted grain causes the mottling of the wood to appear striped.  I don't think I favor either the flat or vertical grain.

The larger trees are the prettiest wood.  While I have cut many in the 12" to 16" range, the prettiest wood seems to have come from logs that are in excess of 20" and the 30" plus logs are well worth the chainsaw trouble that it takes to make them fit the mill. :)

Tom

Check out this stool that a customer made for me years ago.

http://www.tomssaw.com/gallery/album01/sweetgumstool

Ga_Boy

Tom,

That is the same pattern the my two customers saw and marked the boards.

They were very suprised that the species was Gum, now they are exicted to work with this species as they never had before.


Mark
10 Acers in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Tom

That stool has a little spalt in it that makes it  more remarkable.  But the colors are still Sweet Gum.

MemphisLogger

Hmm . . . Sweetgum . . .



That's 12' and 6/4. The heartwood (Redgum) is the only good part. :)
Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

sawwood

Urban logger that looks like the sweet gum i had one time.
some of it spalted and i used it in a segmented turning.
I sure do like and if the tree service git some logs will have
some more.

 Sawwood
Norwood M4 manual mill, Solar Kiln, Woodmaster
18" planer/molder

TN_man

Sweet stool you got there Tom ;D
WM LT-20 solar-kiln Case 885 4x4 w/ front end loader  80 acre farm  little time or money

ARKANSAWYER

  Sweet gun is best felled in the fall and allowed to lay for a month or two bucked into logs but not sealed. Saw on the light of the moon.   Most of my 4/4 lumber I saw at double thickness and sticker as it comes off saw.  I split it after drying as it seems to dry flatter in thicker boards.  Alot of it goes as 8/4 and 12/4 and I have better luck with flat sawn for grade or through and through so the qsawn is one board like Tom does it.
  It is bad to twist, bugs love it, and it will rot most quick which makes it hard to spalt.   I have covered it with 50 coat and people think it is marble.
ARKANSAWYER
ARKANSAWYER

Grawulf

I was beginning to wonder about some sweetgum that a friend had purchased from an amish sawyer. Stuff was sawn at 4/4, stickered correctly and allowed to air dry in a drying shed. The whole stack looked like airplane propellers after about a year. Glad that you said something about twist, Arky. Thought I was the only one.............

logman

If nothing else you can saw it up for RR ties, the guy I talked
to a while back from Koppers said they love gum because it
takes treatment well.
LT40HD, 12' ext, 5105 JD tractor, Genie GTH5519 telehandler
M&K Timber Works

Arthur

Do you know the botanic name of this wood.  The pics and discription sound like the Rose  Gum we have here.  If it is I have found that you need to hug the tree.  By doing this you can measure for 600mm or greater and look up to find defects,etc.

much above 800mm and you start to get pipes up the middle.

8"x2" and 12"x2" get the best money here for stairs. 4"x1" are good for flooring.  no good at all for use outdoors.  

Best left 3 to 6 months in log form before milling.  Butt end downhill.  I have left logs for upto 3 years getting good boards but loose a bit due to spliting.

music_boy

LIQUIDAMBAR (Liquidam'bar). DESCRIPTION: Liquidambar is the botanical name for the Sweet Gum trees. L. styraciflua is a native of eastern North America. ...
 Witch Hazel family
Rick
It's not how much YOU love, it is how much you ARE loved that matters. (Wizard of OZ)

Tom


VA-Sawyer

I cut some gum up for stickers once. Big Mistake ! That stuff bent up in more ways than you can imagine. I have played with gum a little since then. I can be dried straight with work.
VA-Sawyer

Larry

Little to far north for sweet gum here.  Sawwood gave me a little piece to take a picture of for my web site.  Sure is pretty.



Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

oldsaw

He'd be hard pressed to fit a whole lot more wood in his shop without throwing out some tools.

That is a really cool looking piece though.

So many trees, so little money, even less time.

Stihl 066, Husky 262, Husky 350 (warmed over), Homelite Super XL, Homelite 150A

Daren

I am really glad I found this site. I am new to sawmilling, so I have been trying to learn from the internet. There are not any sawyers local I can hang out with and learn from. I had the same question about gum. A guy dropped off 7 sweet gum logs 20"x 10' for me yesterday. I guess I will cut them thick and hope for the best.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Tom

Welcome, Daren :)

You've found a herd...cuvy......bunch..... er lots of.....   wood-interested folks here.  Have a seat anytime and help us discuss sawing, building, visiting and food...over and over and over and.....

We're having a good time. ;D

Avalancher

Im glad you all metioned this fact about gum trees, I had a call last week from some neighbors wanting to know if I wanted to remove some storm damaged trees from their yard.They said it was gum, and I was wondering what I would do with it. I told em that I would swing by later this week to take a look.
The only problem is two of the trees are leaning over the house and everyone else they called wouldnt touch the job. One company would who had a large enough crane to just pick the whole tree up after it was cut at the base, but they wanted $8000 a tree to remove.
Can you believe that? $8000 a tree!

Buzz-sawyer

I have cut some trees hanging over houses in my arborist days....(2 foot sections ropped at a time)
Personally on a hanger...........or almost ANY yard tree near houses, I would not consider cutting it for lumber logs.......

now AFTER the guy they PAY to do it puts it on the ground I might give it a wizz, still you are doing them a favor, as you probably know, as a good neighbor :)
My point is, that, is a LOT of liability and trmendous hard work for a saw log .....especially gum....good luck ;)
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

TomFromStLouis

I may have missed it, but the obvious answer to the twisty warp issue on drying is to quartersaw. I understand sweetgum has similar drying statistics to sycamore, so whenever I decide to cut either up, I quartersaw.

Arky, since you are cutting 2 and 3 times thickness, wouldn't your yield be better quartering? Or are they not big enough to cut that way?

DanG

My answer to the twist/warp problem is weight. Sweet gum will twist if left on it's own, but if ya clamp it down good, it will behave itself.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Avalancher

I was hoping that my winch will pull that tree right on over to the other side, maybe even right to the ground. The ground is soft, and I have an excellent oak to use as a tackle block mounter.
I will run steel wires to the tree as well as back up in case something snaps and lets the tree swing back towards the house :o

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