What to do with sweet gum ?

[Chris moss]

A tree company came and dropped off 5 big loads of sweet gum , from what i hear and experienced is that not only is sweet gum hard to split even with my 27 ton splitter , but also it does not burn good at all , i have heard that they make ice cream spoons out of it but just cant seem to find a ice cream spoon maker in the area willing to come get 3 plus cords of sweet gum, anyone have any ideas as to what to do with this sweetgum ? If i let it sit for a year or 2 will it become easier to split?

 

[Del_]

Split it right away and keep it covered. It rots fast in contact with the ground or even if it wet quite often.

Sweet gum burns fine and your splitter should be able to split it easily. Mine splits it four ways.

It is not as dense as oak and you may want to make your splits a little larger because of it.

Black gum is whole lot tougher.

 

[Chris moss]

Split it right away and keep it covered. It rots fast in contact with the ground or even if it wet quite often.

Sweet gum burns fine and your splitter should be able to split it easily. Mine splits it four ways.

It is not as dense as oak and you may want to make your splits a little larger because of it.

Black gum is whole lot tougher.

Ok thanks for the info , when they dropped it off I took a piece and split it and it was stringy and tough to split , i will try to take smaller chunks out of it , how long should it sit to dry out ? It seems to hold a ton of water

 

[Del_]

I would give it two years in a wood shed.

A 27T splitter should split it easily.

I believe it splits a little easier when dried a little, but rots quickly sitting on the ground.

 

[Chris moss]

I would give it two years in a wood shed.

A 27T splitter should split it easily.

I believe it splits a little easier when dried a little, but rots quickly sitting on the ground.

Ok thanks for your time replying and the info , i will get a splitting it tomorrow if this rain holds off

 

[farmer steve]

A tree company came and dropped off 5 big loads of sweet gum , from what i hear and experienced is that not only is sweet gum hard to split even with my 27 ton splitter , but also it does not burn good at all , i have heard that they make ice cream spoons out of it but just cant seem to find a ice cream spoon maker in the area willing to come get 3 plus cords of sweet gum, anyone have any ideas as to what to do with this sweetgum ? If i let it sit for a year or 2 will it become easier to split?

I ended up with some black gum which is a bugger to split. I found that if I took slabs off the outsides it wasn't real bad. Good luck.

 

[chilly460]

It definitely split easier when dry, for me. Don't wait too long as it rots easily, even when up off the ground.

 

[cedarhollow]

you gotta let it dry a year then split it
the sweet gum i burned last year was at least as good as sycamore

 

[duckman]

like farmer steve said , split slabs off the outside first, makes it lot easyer

 

[jrider]

Tell them if that's all they have to take it to the dump next time. Splitting it sucks and I have always had to remove the 4 way on my 22 ton to get it through. As said, don't go right down the center but slab it off the sides. Miserable stuff.

 

[TeeMan]

Use it for bonfire wood. I pass on gum and learned my lesson on sycamore as well.

 

[Agr516]

I cut a couple sweet gums near my yard a few years ago. I immediately cut it to firewood length and stacked it off the ground on a pallet and stored it outside in rows just like any of my other firewood. It sprouted fungus out of the end of the rounds and rotted inside its own bark within one year. I will leave that trashy crap on the ground to rot where it falls next time.

 

[sb47]

Arrange a block party and throw a match on the whole pile.

 

[TimberWolf530]

I think Sweet Gum is the worst wood there is to split. It takes forever because it is so stringy. Once you get past that, it burns fine. It does leave a lot of ash though.

 

[Del_]

I think Sweet Gum is the worst wood there is to split. It takes forever because it is so stringy. Once you get past that, it burns fine. It does leave a lot of ash though.

Sweet gum is not near as difficult to split as black gum(tupelo).

We were splitting tupelo yesterday should have got a video. Had to take the 4 way off and split from the edges. Tough stuff kicking the 28 gpm two speed into low flow/high pressure mode immediately. We enjoy how tupelo burns with a bright yellow flame and call it 'bomb wood'. It really does put on quite a show. It is the most difficult wood we've ever split.

I don't get the hate for sweet gum. It seasons and burns fine.

If a 27 ton splitter won't split sweet gum two ways then maybe the pressure of the system should be checked. We run our at 2,500 psi and have a gauge we insert in a tee at the back of the 5 inch diameter cylinder for setting. Removed when not in use though as it is a delicate instrument.

I'll post up a video of some black gum burning after we get into the heating season a little bit more. Only have had the stove at a minimum fire 3 times so far this fall.

 

[cedarhollow]

i did burn it but it was in a covered wood shed for a year before it was dry and could be split
it made heat and overall was better than boxelder thats for sure

 

[TimberWolf530]

Sweet gum is not near as difficult to split as black gum(tupelo).

We were splitting tupelo yesterday should have got a video. Had to take the 4 way off and split from the edges. Tough stuff kicking the 28 gpm two speed into low flow/high pressure mode immediately. We enjoy how tupelo burns with a bright yellow flame and call it 'bomb wood'. It really does put on quite a show. It is the most difficult wood we've ever split.

I don't get the hate for sweet gum. It seasons and burns fine.

If a 27 ton splitter won't split sweet gum two ways then maybe the pressure of the system should be checked. We run our at 2,500 psi and have a gauge we insert in a tee at the back of the 5 inch diameter cylinder for setting. Removed when not in use though as it is a delicate instrument.

I'll post up a video of some black gum burning after we get into the heating season a little bit more. Only have had the stove at a minimum fire 3 times so far this fall.

It's not that the splitter doesn't have enough power, it just doesn't have uniform parallel grain that goes off all kinds of funky directions, so it takes almost twice as long to split, and then you have all these weird shaped logs that don't stack well. Like I said, I don't have any problem with how it burns, it just takes almost twice as long to process, so I'd much rather have some Ash, Oak, or Hard Maple. I've never heard of Tupelo. What region does that grow in?

 

[Del_]

It's not that the splitter doesn't have enough power, it just doesn't have uniform parallel grain that goes off all kinds of funky directions, so it takes almost twice as long to split, and then you have all these weird shaped logs that don't stack well. Like I said, I don't have any problem with how it burns, it just takes almost twice as long to process, so I'd much rather have some Ash, Oak, or Hard Maple. I've never heard of Tupelo. What region does that grow in?

I don't get weird shaped pieces and do agree it takes longer to split. Still, it was dropped off for free.


Here is the range for black gum:


Here is the range for swamp tupelo: