Sweet Gum

[PChristy]

I have read alot of post that all wood is good for turning - but I have also heard and seen at the saw mill I use to work at that Sweet Gum has alot of "water" in it- When the sawer would run it through the saw water would just pour out of it - The reason I am asking is that I am going to cut a few of them down here at the house - they are not very big but my wife hates those gum balls and she wants them down - With that much liquid in them are they any good for turning:dontknow:

 

[WoodWrangler]

We have plenty on my property ... but I've never used it. I've heard that the wood is beautiful, but in drying will twist a whole lot. As for turning, I would think it's a good wood, but even then when drying will likely suffer the same problem and warp.

 

[PChristy]

We have plenty on my property ... but I've never used it. I've heard that the wood is beautiful, but in drying will twist a whole lot. As for turning, I would think it's a good wood, but even then when drying will likely suffer the same problem and warp.

That is the problem we had at the saw mill - I asked my boss why he was chipping those pretty boards up and he told me all they would do is warp

 

[Woodman2k]

Philip,
I've got a 12" by 6" bowl of Sweet Gum going on the lathe and it has distorted very little.Of course,you need to get the center hollowed out to relieve the internal stress and that minimize's the cracking also.I have ended up with spalting and extreme color to intense streaking from tree to tree.You never know what you are going to get.As far as lumber goes I would not expect it to hold up,it rots if you look at it wrong.
Greg

 

[CrealBilly]

The heartwood of the sweet gum tree is commercially sold as "red gum" The reason it dies funky is because the heart wood vers sapwood moisture content is way different so if you have a board that's has a mix of heart and sapwood it's gonna dry funky and most likely twist.

Red Gum is also called Satin Walnut or Po Mans Walnut

Another thing to mention Gum also has interlocked grain like sycamore - Quarter sawing helps stabilize the wood - but one should be cautious about buying green QS gum boards containing both sap and heart wood. There really is that much of a difference in the moisture content. It would be best to top weight a stickered stack of gum to air dry before throwing it in a kiln. Or I suppose a guy could edge out the sapwood as much as possible and dry the sap and heart wood seperate. Problem with this method is there are not many big gum trees around anymore, so you'll wind up with a bunch of narrow boards that not many wood workers would like to buy.

Given enough time and a nich market... a guy could make good QS lumber out of gum logs but I would venture to say a guy could expect atleast 50% cull rate. Most of that would come from sawing and the rest would be drying defect. It's simple business and really comes down to investment going in is not returned at the end. I mean who here would want to pay $5.00 ~ $8.00 a BF for narrow QS Gum? My guess - no one would.

Here's a good write up from Purdue University (Adobe required) ---> http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-300-W.pdf