sweet gum wood for firewood

They usually appear like they are covered with rusty hairs. Green and black ash, sweet gum, silver, and bigleaf maple, red cedar, pineapple, red is equal to 103 liters of liquid fuel ($222) What are the best trees for firewood? If you are simply going to be burning the wood then things get a little easier. On top of that, the rating will change based on the wood’s moisture content. This water not only makes the pieces of wood really heavy to move, but it also increases the odds of the firewood molding. As you learned earlier, sweet gum is easily identifiable as it comes from a tree that produces star-shaped leaves that contain five points along with spiked fruit. My Saddest TV Moments Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAZ6PGgiwg&list=PL355BF2121364AF26&feature=plpp Discusses placement from your home and how to build the perfect backyard fire. Just because sweet gum might not be the best firewood around doesn't mean you can't use it.......it just takes a little more effort. It is the interlocking grain that makes the warping and splitting so prone with sweet gum wood. The best time to split the wood is when it is greener. 10 chiminea safety tips designed to increase safety around your chiminea. I may try some on some chicken quarters to see how it works, after I check my health insuance policy. Sweet Gum Firewood Use. The wood is beautiful and it's often used as a veneer for plywood. And as the tree matures they will turn to a red-brown, gray or dark brown combination. Even using one of these devices is going to be difficult and time-consuming. But how well does it split with an axe? In fact, sweet gum will produce approximately 20.6 million BTU's per cord which isn't all that bad. A green sweet gum tree (one that's been recently cut down) contains a lot of water within the wood. Yew-A slow-burning wood. The wood became super-saturated and froze up. My experience is that trees that are “dead on the stump” usually don’t make good furniture wood. Douglas Fir Firewood - A Popular Softwood To Burn, Chiminea Safety Tips - Enjoying An Outdoor Fireplace. The spiked shells can be painful to walk on and are commonly nicknamed burr balls or sticker balls. Some individuals will even use 12-inch sticker spacing to speed up the drying time. Reason for using this wood was the abundance of it. Color/Appearance: Wide sapwood is whitish to light pink or tan color, and is sometimes referred to as “sapgum” or “sweetgum.” Heartwood is gray to reddish brown, and is commonly referred to as “redgum.” Heartwood with darker black streaks is called “figured redgum.” … It burns fast and hot and creates a lot of ashes. If you get wood that is underrated, you will find that you are constantly refilling the fireplace throughout the night.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'woodsmanreport_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_14',118,'0','0'])); If you get a good wood like oak, you will find that it will burn throughout the entire night. NCHillbilly Administrator. Sweet Gum Tip:  Cut the tree to about two or three inches high and flat and use the stump as a chopping block. Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is one of the most important commercial hardwoods in the Southeastern United States. If you only need a little wood, bagged commercial firewood is often a good and safe choice as the high-quality hardwood will burn hot and clean. "This winter I discovered by pure chance a way to alter the wood fibers some so you can split the wood more effectively with an axe. Sweet gum works good for the "shoulder seasons" when the outside temperatures are mild. Incidentally, the … Such trees can grow to be as old as 400 years old and they can reach towering heights of 150 feet. All I have to do is drop them and haul them off. Is sweet gum good firewood?eval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'woodsmanreport_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_12',130,'0','0'])); Sweet gum will make excellent firewood as it is capable of producing large amounts of heat, as long as you are willing to put in the extra work. The heartwood is also known as hazelwood in the trade, and the sapwood is sap-gum. As far as the drying time goes, the one-year period is not much longer than it takes other woods to season, so this is not too much extra effort to ask for. However, this doesn't mean you can't use the wood. The major concern with the wood is the amount of work and energy it takes to split it into usable sizes. Has anyone ever milled any sweet gum on here and is it worth all the work or would it be a waste of money? Most of the time, the spiked shells are left behind and can be considered a nuisance for anyone walking around with bare feet. I am also splitting a limb from a beech tree.. This may or may not be desirable, depending on the proportion of low-density hardwoods, such as cottonwood, that are included. If you have dry old firewood and a half backed one like one year or so, You can get a hot fire by mixing it one dry one not so dry. Sweetgum is unique among American hardwoods. Forums > Tree Care Forums > Firewood, Heating and Wood Burning Equipment > ArboristSite.com Sponsors sweet gum for firewood. It is more like ripping and tearing open an incredibly, tight sealed package. Feb 28, 2018 #7. The problem with sweet gum wood is that it tends to warp when it dries, as you learned above.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'woodsmanreport_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_1',133,'0','0'])); This not only makes the splitting of the wood harder, but it affects the overlook of the wood if you are going to use it for furniture. I use a heavy maul and the pieces split on the first swing. It has a chart also if you want to look up what another type of wood BTU is. It is understandable as to why many might think this way. It has really helped with turning out beautiful smoked hams and sausage. I looked on the internet and loved the beautiful grain and colors of it but I heard that it has a bad tendency to warp and curl really bad? I built a log smokehouse several years ago with sweet gum. The wood that grows back after topping is weak, and the trunk usually rots. Actually, it doesn't really split it just tears, shreds and twists its way apart. not typically used as firewood because it is hard to split. This is especially true if you are going to be using the species for furniture. You can ask most experts and they will tell you that splitting sweet gum is probably more difficult than splitting oak. Once the wood is split, store it under a roof or cover because sweet gum tends to rot quickly and produce mold when it's exposed to moisture. Sweet gum wood, though, has been another story. Return from Sweet Gum Firewood to Firewood Types. It's okay to season and burn wood obtained through storm damage as long as it isn't rotten, diseased or treated with pesticides. There's tons of it here, but not much of it is taken because of the interlocking wood fibers.". If you are the proud new owner of a fireplace or woodstove there is a good chance that you have discovered you have many different firewood options available to you. Its wood is bright reddish brown (with the sapwood nearly white) and may have black grain in the heartwood; it is heavy, straight, satiny, and close-grained, but not strong. Explains how to season one, lists what you can burn inside of it and how to store it after use. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'woodsmanreport_com-leader-1','ezslot_13',126,'0','0']));This will help keep the RH stable and achieve an overall more vivid color. Here is a link to the one I have. There is a good chance that you have heard about the popular burning woods like hickory and ash. In fact, people will go their whole lives without hearing about sweet gum firewood. Thorn-This wood emits very little smoke. The tree can be used for parks and gardens because it grows anywhere though it does well … Figured sweetgum resembles Circassian walnut and is often marketed a\abriad as satin walnut. They would rather use their time and storage space on a wood that's more "user friendly.". We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Tim Inman: Gum is often used as a “utility” wood in manufacturing. If you're going to split sweet gum, using a hydraulic splitter is the best way. If you’re new to splitting wood, I wrote a helpful guide on how to do it. That being said, there is a good chance that you haven’t heard of some of the off-brand species like sweet gum. Softwood. The often beautifully figured stock can resemble walnut. (Please Note: We have found that the interlaced grain of live oak and Sweet Gum tends to be much slower and harder to split, equating to less yeild per hour.) Compared to other woods, it is too much work to make firewood out of sweet gum. All that being said, it is possible to split sweet gum with a very sharp ax. Splitting sweet gum is without a doubt going to be a challenge. It is not a good idea to store firewood too close to the house. From contributor A: Sweet gum is a great wood, but it cups and twists when it dries. Easily identified by its star shaped leaves with 5 points and spiked fruit, these hardwood trees can grow up to 150 feet tall and live for up to 400 years. There have even been some species found in West Illinois, Southern Missouri, and Eastern Texas.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'woodsmanreport_com-leader-2','ezslot_15',123,'0','0'])); Two other notable features that make this species standout are the branches and twigs. Rowan-This wood burns slowly with a consistent output of heat. Ecological Uses. The pigment feature is … Sweet gum is not a very popular firewood choice for a variety of different reasons. Is sweet gum good firewood? Let the wood season for about 1 year and it will be ready to burn. The bark is light brown and tinged with red/grayish fissures that appear with scaly ridges. Grinders only go so deep, But its not going to be enough to worry about. Firewood is a topic of many different opinions. You are better off taking it out. You can get away with 2 if you split it just after cutting it. Now this is Maryland, so we're not as cold as a Michigan winter, but both 2013-14 and 2014-15 were harsh so temperatures were sub-freezing for weeks. You will just want to make sure that you start on the outside edges and work your way around the outside of the wood.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'woodsmanreport_com-banner-1','ezslot_3',132,'0','0'])); The goal is to eventually work your way to the core. Wild rabbits are very observant, active animals. In addition to this, the gum moves considerably after drying when the RH changes. Higher prices are paid for speciality products such as small diameter firewood for wood-fired pizza ovens. Sweet gum will make excellent firewood as it is capable of producing large amounts of heat, as long as you are willing to put in the extra work. I left several large trunk cuts out in the snow in my yard through January and February. If you haven’t dried it enough, there is a good chance that the BTU will decrease. You will have some settling years down the road from the large tap root on a gum. This would be enough wood to get me through winter. Milled the logs, stacked, and secured them in a couple of days on a concrete slab. My question is, is sweet gum lumber worth a darn? In fact, sweet gum will produce approximately 20.6 million BTU's per cord which isn't all that bad. The red gum would be the darker heartwood of the sweet gum trees. You probably have an abundant supply of firewood on your hands, though. For more info on sweet gum firewood, you check out this article. Sweet gum wood is also used to make plywood, veneer and upholstered furniture frames. If you need a lot of firewood I would suggested avoiding sweet gum. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. If you are willing to put in the extra work, you could be rewarded with copious amounts of BTUs and long burning time, as these are two things that sweet gum is noted for. This is pretty impressive for firewood. It takes a beautiful polish, but warps badly in drying. The wood can be easily identified thanks to its star-shaped leaves, which usually consist of five points and spiked fruit. Individuals that are looking to use sweet gum wood for furniture or other wood decorations should consider steaming the wood prior to drying. A guy I work with just had a huge sweet gum tree fall next to his house. 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Tight sealed package split the wood in manufacturing the drier it gets topping is weak, and pieces... Split on the fire you 'll probably notice heavy smoke in the beginning before it fully dries consider the... Balls or sticker balls true if you split it into usable sizes problems by stacking the wood prior to.... It was built only go so deep, but it can be naturally found growing in lowlands southwestern. Maryland shared a method he uses to make splitting the wood is it. ' started by komatsuvarna, Apr 25, 2010. komatsuvarna Arboristsite MVP very own BTU rating qualities. Here, how to use a clay chiminea - a popular softwood to burn.... 3 ( Sydney ) Summers to be classified as a veneer for plywood up what another type firewood... Since the wood is when it dries to his house affiliate links so I earn.! Open an incredibly, tight sealed package inside of it here, but warps badly drying... Wood by hand that is whitish to light pink or tan color in appearance and... 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