VernonFirewood
ArboristSite Member
I have some sweetgum.(you know the stuff with the little pointed balls, real common in the south) and i was wondering if it was good firewood.
sweeetgum for firewood?
- Thread starter VernonFirewood
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
I asked the same question last year.
http://arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=44847
I ended up with a couple PU loads from a neighbor. It is about twice as hard to split as oak, but seems to burn just fine. I don't heat the home, but burn good amount in the fireplace.
http://arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=44847
I ended up with a couple PU loads from a neighbor. It is about twice as hard to split as oak, but seems to burn just fine. I don't heat the home, but burn good amount in the fireplace.
VernonFirewood
ArboristSite Member
sweetgum sellable with hardwood?
so if i mix in some sweetgum with the rest of the hardwood i sell(mostly oak) will my customers flip out.
so if i mix in some sweetgum with the rest of the hardwood i sell(mostly oak) will my customers flip out.
habanero
ArboristSite Guru
If they think they are getting all hardwood they will (or at least they should).
PA Plumber
Addicted to ArboristSite
Here is what the National Audobon Society Field Guide to Trees has to say:
"An important timber tree, Sweetgum is second in production only to oaks among the hardwoods. It is a leading furniture wood, used for cabinetwork, veneer, plywood, pulpwood, barrels, and boxes."
habanero
ArboristSite Guru
Hmm, the stuff back home that Dad called sweetgum I've never considered to be a hardwood-at least it didn't burn or last in a pile like a hardwood. Must be different stuff.
If that's the case and it really is a hardwood, I take back my earlier comment. Though customers expecting oak may still be surprised if they find non-oak wood mixed in.
Log Splitter
ArboristSite Guru
Sweetgum will burn in the stove if it is properly seasoned, but it does not put out the kind of BTUs that the better hardwoods do. It would not be my choice of firewood if I had options. It is often stringy when split, and is easily recognized in the woodpile by the bark, color of the wood, and the above mentioned strigy fibers. If I thought I was buying seasoned oak, and some sweetgum was mixed in for filler, I'd complain.
The stuff we call gum around here is miserable to split! It will fight you all the way to the last 1/4 inch of the log. The grain is all twisted together and intertwined.
It burns really well in my stove with a cool (looking) blue flame. Not the longest or hottest burning but not bad either. Large rounds work well!
JD in PA
It burns really well in my stove with a cool (looking) blue flame. Not the longest or hottest burning but not bad either. Large rounds work well!
JD in PA
Husky137
Addicted to ArboristSite
I wouldn't mix it in with the wood I sell. Kinda like mixing in pine or aspen(popple).
Hoosierheater
ArboristSite Lurker
Sweetgum
Definitely the hardest splittinig wood I have ever split. It makes splitting sycamore and elm seem like a day at the beach. Very nasty stuff.
Definitely the hardest splittinig wood I have ever split. It makes splitting sycamore and elm seem like a day at the beach. Very nasty stuff.
barkies
ArboristSite Operative
the people around here no matter how dumb on wood species can spot a stick of sweetgum in a pile of oak from a mile away
It seems as if anyone you sell wood to has got a load sold to them that was unseasoned and it would not burn
most customers ask up front does there load have sweetgum in it
on the other hand its a decent burning wood when dry
my grandad loves it and has heated a 4200 sq ft house with it (in our southern winters of course)
It seems as if anyone you sell wood to has got a load sold to them that was unseasoned and it would not burn
most customers ask up front does there load have sweetgum in it
on the other hand its a decent burning wood when dry
my grandad loves it and has heated a 4200 sq ft house with it (in our southern winters of course)
Dadatwins
Addicted to ArboristSite
Sweet gum more in a class with hickory and elm, hard and stringy. I would classify sweetgum as a hardwood, it is a bear to split, dries nicely and burns hot. If I had the means to split it I would not turn away a load of it as firewood. Pine and aspen/poplar soft wood that has very little heat value when dried out, put those in a class with willow and other trash wood.
The Virginia Tech BTU/Cord table lists these woods at these values
Wood BTU/Cord
Hickory 25,400,000
Red Oak 21,700,000
White Oak 20,000,000
Sweet Gum 18,100,000
Wood BTU/Cord
Hickory 25,400,000
Red Oak 21,700,000
White Oak 20,000,000
Sweet Gum 18,100,000
PA Plumber
Addicted to ArboristSite
I don't know anything about Sweet gum, but Black Gum is absolutely awful to split. Makes the splitter whine and growl. Tough stuff. When dry is burns very hot with little draft. Larger pieces leave a beautiful coal bed.
Black gum, nyssa sylvatica, is a totally different type of tree around here than sweet gum or red gum, Liquidambar styraciflua.
Black gum is my favorite tree in the forest for beauty. The leaves turn the brightest colors in the fall.
I've split Sweetgum by hand. It's hard to do. took me a long time. I really had to take my time and strike each piece exactly right. But the stuff around here I can't imagine looking down your nose at for burning. Plus it doesn't smell like all the red oak I usually burn. If someone else did the splitting, I would take it. I'd rather have dry Gum then semidry oak anytime.
But clearly there are some people who don't want it. So I'm not sure what to say to a firewood seller.
Similar threads
