Need Help Identifying Species

Craptastic

Matt
Corporate Member
Thanks. A storm took down several trees, one of them being a sweetgum. I had the lumber milled and let it air dry for several years. It is a soft wood (as far as hardwood trees go). I would not use it for anything that was going outdoors. It rots easily.

From my experience it tends to warp when drying. This is probably due to the amount of water in the wood. Once dry the wood is light and a bit spongy to work -- like white pine. Use sharp chisels. It planes and sands well.

The heartwood has the dark color. If you have a large tree you're taking down, then have some of it milled into lumber. Let us know how it goes and what you make.
Thanks Jim!
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
Which begs the question - is sweet gum worth much as a woodworking medium? I have a tall sweet gum growing on my property that I've been thinking about taking down. It's very straight and quite linear in diameter but just not sure I want to buzz it down if it's not going to be usable for projects.
I was able to get some relatively straight slabs from some sweet gum logs, but it took a bit of effort when drying. I cut the slabs 1 1/2"+ thick, and then stacked and stickered them. I put the stickers 12" -15" apart, and then put 3,000lb cargo straps on every other sticker. I went out weekly for the first three months and tightened the straps as tight as I could get them by hand. They ended up drying for over a year before I used any of them. As a result, almost every slab was useable. When milling them down to thickness, I took about equal thickness material off of both sides until I was within about 1/8" of the final thickness, and then let sit for a few days before going to final. I had very little warping using this method. In non-climate controlled storage, the boards that I stopped about 1/8" shy had almost negligible warping.

Jim Creasman's description is spot on with my experiences working with it. I think because the wood is relatively soft, and the cells are cross-linked, it didn't seem to harbor internal stress after drying. Also, because the growth rings are not distinct like oak or ash, it doesn't dish out between growth rings when sanding. Be careful working around knots (i.e use sharp tools and work towards the knot center), because it can tear out a chunk otherwise. (When this happened to me, I just glued it back in and then finished the process after it had dried.)

Sweet gum was used as a secondary wood (i.e. drawer supports, corner blocking, etc) in much of the NC furniture back in the "Furniture Capitol" days.
 
Last edited:

Craptastic

Matt
Corporate Member
I was able to get some relatively straight slabs from some sweet gum logs, but it took a bit of effort when drying. I cut the slabs 1 1/2"+ thick, and then stacked and stickered them. I put the stickers 12" -15" apart, and then put 3,000lb cargo straps on every other sticker. I went out weekly for the first three months and tightened the straps as tight as I could get them by hand. They ended up drying for over a year before I used any of them. As a result, almost every slab was useable. When milling them down to thickness, I took about equal thickness material off of both sides until I was within about 1/8" of the final thickness, and then let sit for a few days before going to final. I had very little warping using this method. In non-climate controlled storage, the boards that I stopped about 1/8" shy had almost negligible warping.

Jim Creasman's description is spot on with my experiences working with it. I think because the wood is relatively soft, and the cells are cross-linked, it didn't seem to harbor internal stress after drying. Also, because the growth rings are not distinct like oak or ash, it doesn't dish out between growth rings when sanding. Be careful working around knots (i.e use sharp tools and work towards the knot center), because it can tear out a chunk otherwise. (When this happened to me, I just glued it back in and then finished the process after it had dried.)

Sweet gum was used as a secondary wood (i.e. drawer supports, corner blocking, etc) in much of the NC furniture back in the "Furniture Capitol" days.
Thanks Mark!
 

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