Sweetgum has become popular as a boulevard or landscaping tree. Why, I don't know. Seems to me, the willow oak would be a better choice. Those spiky seed pods are a real pain to clean up. Nobody wants to walk near them. But the gum does offer good shade in summer and beautiful foliage in the fall.
It's also a very sturdy tree and can usually withstand heavy winds. We have several huge gums next to the house, they've weathered many a storm over the years. But I digress.
We've been burning sweetgum with other hardwoods for years. Here's our personal experience:
Our woodlot is over half sweetgum trees. Tall, straight and dominant. Most are over 40 years old and are quite large. The rest is maple and some oak. I take down at least one large gum and several smaller ones per year to maintain a balance.
Gum has a love/hate reputation. I guess it depends mostly on what you're gonna do with it. If you're cutting firewood to sell, gum is a nuisance tree. You cut it to get it out of your road. If you're cutting wood for your own use ~ and the wood is free, it's not a bad option if you have the time, the equipment and the patience to lay it in.
Back in the '80s, a nephew and I sold wood in the upscale neighborhoods of northern Virginia. Those folks wanted wood that was pretty. It had to be clean and pretty.
Sweetgum isn't pretty. It's ugly as sin when it's split. We couldn't sneak the stuff in.
Yep, it's a bear to split. Gum doesn't split so much as it mangles and tears. Anyone who can split the stuff with an axe or maul is a better man than I. We have a 16-ton Ramsplitter. A green gum round larger than 8" just bogs the thing down, all the way through. Gum has a high resin content. The grain, if one cares to call it that, is strong and stringy.
Last year I felled a large maple and it landed on three 8" gum saplings. Three gum springpoles to deal with. Those gums never splintered, they just bent. And they held that maple off the ground.
I understand there are differing opinions on when to split the stuff. For my part, I've had no luck splitting it green off the stump, even if slabbing the rounds. What I do is fell, limb and buck and take the rounds from limbs at first. The smaller rounds can be split easily enough but the main trunk has to be bucked and left to dry for 6 months or longer before they'll split.
This aspect, along with the difficulty of splitting is what steers most wood dealers away from gum. They don't have the luxury of time to leave wood lay on the ground for half the year before splitting it. Then it has to be stacked where it can season for at least a year before burning.
And it's ugly. The end of a gum round split looks like the mouth of a Jack-o-lantern.
If you're cutting your own, gum ain't bad if it's free. I'm of the mind; if it's free, it's for me. And like the old-timers used to say, you burn what you have. We have a lot of gum here.
Does gum contribute to creosote buildup? Only if it hasn't been allowed to dry for at least a year after splitting and stacking. I know ~ I clean my own flue. When fully seasoned, gum doesn't contribute to creosote buildup any more than any other wood.
That said, it's quite light in weight when fully seasoned and doesn't give the high heat and longevity in your stove like oak, locust and hickory. And it leaves more ash behind than more desireable hardwoods. But it catches fire quickly and burns hot.
If you've got access to it and it's free wood, go for it. Just remember to plan ahead. You don't want to burn it until it's had at least a year to season on the woodpile.
