Anyone ever work with sweet gum?

[Backwoods]

I picked up this sweet gum tree. Now I need to figure out what I want to mill out of it.

I got seven logs out of the sweet gum and the other two are Myrtlewood. I picked these logs
up on the return trip from delivering some Doug fir beams.

The Myrtlewood log was back in there about 20’.

Nevertheless, after doing some fishing with the backhoe
bucket it came out of the black berry patch.

Nice sweet black berries, and easy to pick to boot.

 

[woodshop]

If we are talking about the same thing (Liquidambar styraciflua... star shaped leaf?) I've milled about 300 ft of it, we have lots of it here on the east coast. Nothing spectacular, kinda dull whitish wood. Hard, close grained, sorta like soft maple. Wouldn't want to make a fine piece of furniture out of any of it I've seen so far.

 

[Backwoods]

Yep that sounds like the same stuff.
What is it good for?

 

[woodshop]

Yep that sounds like the same stuff.
What is it good for?

It's one of those little used hardwoods here in the east. Sometimes you can get some beautiful reddish heartwood from a sweetgum, but most of the ones I've opened up were mostly light colored whitish relatively hard close grained wood, not unlike sycamore, black gum or soft maple in color and texture. When I worked as a logger we sold a bunch for mine timbers one time, since the wood is relatively strong. Woodworkers have made furniture out of it, but like ash and some other less woods that are less valuable than the standard oak/cherry/walnut furniture woods, it isn't used much for that. I am a little biased though when it comes to "less valuable" wood. Today I'm working in the woodshop with pecan. I happen to think it's a beautiful light to dark tan wood that has a unique color and appealing grain patterns.

 

[scottr]

Backwoods, the Alabama Forestry Commission book states that Sweetgum is used for:"Pulp, lumber, veneer, railroad ties, furniture. Historical uses: boxes, crates, woodenware, barrel staves." I know that it use to be trucked to Columbus, GA. to be used to make plywood. Some guys on the other for um cut it thick for paneling.

 

[Backwoods]

So it seems to be a fairly strong wood, just not a real pretty wood. I think I can find a couple uses for it.

 

[scottr]

Backwoods, I remember a guy saying that it was good for bending to make concrete forms because of the interlocking grain.

 

[Backwood]

Wouldnt hurt to weight the stack down, sweetgum will bend and twist more than most.

good exercise when using a maul

 

[woodshop]

Backwoods, I remember a guy saying that it was good for bending to make concrete forms because of the interlocking grain.

That's true, like black gum and sycamore, this stuff is near impossible to split by hand.