Ever Used Sweetgum (wood)?

[WoodWrangler]

Have you ever used Sweetgum wood in woodworking?

I have a bunch of (what I believe to be) Sweetgum trees on my property, and there are many around this area (and probably elsewhere). I've heard it looks like (or can look like) Walnut with the heartwood.

I have half-dead Sweetgum I'd like to have cut down and turned into boards ... if it's worth it.

What's your experience?

 

[Gofor]

Sweet gum has been used in lot of furniture. The expensive wood was on the outside and the gum for the internal, bracing, supports, etc. When the spray-on coatings that had tints in them came into vogue, sweet gum was used for a lot on inexpensive furniture even on the outside. If you have any old "solid wood" self assemble shelf units that used the screw together spindles, they may likely be made of sweet gum. It is straight grained but doesn't have a lot of character. Have not milled any or used it green. I have "recycled" some out of other pieces and, given that it had years to cure, it was a good wood to work with. Pretty close to southern maple IMHO.

Go

 

[ChrisMathes]

The second pen to the right came from a sweetgum sapling that I took out of my backyard. I thought it was a nice color...kind of cafe au lai (?) Smooth without much grain. I have a little left and plan to make another. It appeared to darken a little before I sold the pen...would be interested to see it now.

...ping 'Sweetgum'. His login id came from his love of the wood...should have some good insight....

Chris

 

[taandctran]

I have some sweet gum pen blanks that I have turned into pens. Gum wood is my favorite wood I have turned. Sometime you find character on the inside that I didnt even know was there. Or at least the blanks I have are like that. I also walked to the other side of my land a couple of months ago and found one that had fell. I cut it up and turned some christmas ornaments out of it. They looked really good. But they were lightly spalted, so that could have made a diffrence.

 

[adowden]

If I remember correctly, a sawyer told me that sweetgum is a good wood to work with if you can keep it from warping during drying. We had some sweetgum logs mix in with some other logs. He put the sweetgum at the bottom of the stack so that the weight of all the other lumber would help minimize warpage. I have not made it to the bottom to check it out.