bert the turtle
ArboristSite Operative
I have a fair number of sweet gums that needed to come down. When I first got my land and needed to clear some initial areas, it all just got cut and thrown on the burn pile. I didn't have a splitter or anywhere to put it and it had to go.
A year or two ago, I had a few that I needed to clear and I had some space in the barn, so I cut them into 2 or 4 foot logs depending on diameter (it is plenty heavy when green) and just stacked it up to see what happened. No chance on earth I could split it other than for fun/workout. I also had small stack of 1 foot rounds.
I've finally got the house built and the wood stove in and I don't yet have a great supply of wood laid in. The one foot lengths of gum were nice and checked and looked pretty dry, so I threw them on a bed of coals, and they did a great job for the last month as overnight logs.
This weekend I went out to see how the longer lengths were doing. They two foot lengths looked reasonably checked while the four foot lengths had a bit of mold on the ends and didn't look so dry.
Much to my surprise, when I cut them to 16 inches for my stove, they were not at all difficult to split. Slabbed off as easy as oak!
The 6 inch remnants were even easier to split and I just gave them a single whack and split them clear in two. I popped 4 of the 6 inch halves in 3 or 4 hours ago and I've got a tasty bed of coals, the glass is clean as can be and nothing but heat waves coming out the chimney.
I know sweet gum is a reviled firewood due to the difficulty of splitting. Looks like in my climate, all I need to do is cut it to length and stack it for a year or two in the barn. Then it splits easy as can be and burns just fine. My house is very well insulated so gum heated the whole place very comfortably even in the unusually cold weather we've been having. It is extremely available and regrows quickly from the stumps. It may be an odd choice of firewood, but preliminary indications are that could be a mainstay for me.
A year or two ago, I had a few that I needed to clear and I had some space in the barn, so I cut them into 2 or 4 foot logs depending on diameter (it is plenty heavy when green) and just stacked it up to see what happened. No chance on earth I could split it other than for fun/workout. I also had small stack of 1 foot rounds.
I've finally got the house built and the wood stove in and I don't yet have a great supply of wood laid in. The one foot lengths of gum were nice and checked and looked pretty dry, so I threw them on a bed of coals, and they did a great job for the last month as overnight logs.
This weekend I went out to see how the longer lengths were doing. They two foot lengths looked reasonably checked while the four foot lengths had a bit of mold on the ends and didn't look so dry.
Much to my surprise, when I cut them to 16 inches for my stove, they were not at all difficult to split. Slabbed off as easy as oak!
The 6 inch remnants were even easier to split and I just gave them a single whack and split them clear in two. I popped 4 of the 6 inch halves in 3 or 4 hours ago and I've got a tasty bed of coals, the glass is clean as can be and nothing but heat waves coming out the chimney.
I know sweet gum is a reviled firewood due to the difficulty of splitting. Looks like in my climate, all I need to do is cut it to length and stack it for a year or two in the barn. Then it splits easy as can be and burns just fine. My house is very well insulated so gum heated the whole place very comfortably even in the unusually cold weather we've been having. It is extremely available and regrows quickly from the stumps. It may be an odd choice of firewood, but preliminary indications are that could be a mainstay for me.
