# Sweet Gum



## djg (Dec 24, 2009)

Today the neighbors had their Sweet Gum tree taken down. The guy from the tree service said the homeowner didn't want it and that I could have it. I passed on it based on what I remember I had read here about the lumber. I did a quick search and read that it's prone to twisting and cupping. Not to mention hard to split and not very good firewood. The tree was 20" - 24" dia at chest height but only 6' - 8' long before major branching occurred. So I'm kinda glad I passed it up. But it's hard to pass up 'free' wood and after seeing pictures of it's grain, I guess I'm having second thoughts. There's still a chance it has not been cut up into firewood yet.
My questions are this: Even it it has, would roughed out (green) bowls still have a high tendency to distort upon drying? Would any of it be good for turning? And if letting it lay for a year to spalt, would that relax it enough to minimize distortion? I'm guessing end grain would have to be coated? And Lastly, If the distortion occurs along the long axis (pl, x and y), what about in the other direction (z)? Would thick cookies cut cup toward the center or would it be more stable in this direction? Hope you know what I am trying to say, I don't know how else to describe it. Thanks


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

djg said:


> My questions are this: Even it it has, would roughed out (green) bowls still have a high tendency to distort upon drying? Would any of it be good for turning? And if letting it lay for a year to spalt, would that relax it enough to minimize distortion?


I will answer the questions I know. I used to turn green bowls from mill scrap. To be honest sweetgum was one of my favorites. It turned like butter green...but yes the bowls did distort. Never busted because the grain is interlocking, but they would really move...I liked that and left them just as they dried. I am weird I liked the wood because it did distort. I was just using the outside of the log, the sapwood left over from milling. But from my experience milling/drying the heartwood lumber it still moves. I think letting it spalt will tame it some, plus give cool colors (it's pretty bland fresh). It spalts very easy. I am spalting some logs right now that I am going to mill this summer-they were cut last spring.


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## djg (Dec 24, 2009)

Thanks Daren
They still have the log and have not cut it up into firewood yet. The thing is 6' long and 24" dia at the small end. I could only see one blemish (cat eye's toward the end) so there should be fairly clear wood in the log.
I have an 038 with a 24" bar and ripping chain and one of the cheap 'lumber maker' attachments you run along a 2 x 4. It works well enough for slabbing, but I don't think I would try to cut anything less than 8/4 with it. Too much play in it, the boards won't be uniform thickness.
What I would like to do with the chainsaw is get it down to a cant first. Then I could split the cant down the middle which would provide small enough pieces I could wrestle by hand onto my trailer.
The question is: Since the wood is so bland, could I let these two smaller cants spalt (covered but with air flow, up on runners up off the ground) spalt for a year and still cut usable blanks from it later? I don't have any other way of moving the log even though it's short.
I realize you guys with band saw would go to all this trouble for such a log, especially sweet gum, but I I could get some play wood, it would be worth my time.
Lastly any advice on drying a 5 - 6" thick cookie besides coating the ends?
Thanks


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Ideally it's best to spalt in whole log form...but it doesn't sound like that works for you on this one. Tarped in the shade you can get spalt, just don't let them dry out (you are going to get some mold/dry rot too). Stack them very tightly together. One fellow some of us know swears by spraying the slabs/cants well with malt liquor before tarping, seems odd...but this guy is no joke so what's a couple cans of beer-can't hurt. Yes coat the ends is my only advice.

Really since you mentioned slabbing you, if you want to go to the trouble, could still get some lumber. I have slabbed out sweetgum thick (10/4) on my bandmill, let it dry and resawed it. There is some waste in doing that, but I got lumber instead of pretzels (which most often happens if I try to mill thin lumber in the first place)


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## djg (Dec 24, 2009)

Thanks Daren, I think I'm going to try that. I promise these will be my last questions on this subject because the horse is just about dead. If I cut 10/4 slabs would you try to spalt these first and then dry it, or just dry it and take what color you can? Would it help to roughly reconstruct the log with the slabs containing the bark on the outside to hold the moisture in or would tarping it just be easier and as effective? Could the thick slabs be dried in a DH kiln at some point later in time, and if so what's the maximum thickness you could dry? I'm going to set one up in the future but not right away. Thanks for your time.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Like I said before it's best to spalt in whole log form, so I guess short of that yes reassembling the slabs in order _and_ tarping will help. If you want spalt you need moisture (and the sugars in the wood), it simply dies at ~20% or a little under. Yea 10/4 can be dried in a dh kiln. And sweetgum does get some color pretty quick, in a couple months in the summer. Not full on spalt, but good color. And since the grain is so goofy (for the lack of a better term) just a little color adds to its looks IMO.

If you really want spalt, try that beer thing I mentioned between the slabs in a tight stack. And rake up a bunch of leaves and throw them in there under the tarp.


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## jlhaslip (Jan 16, 2010)

What happens if you strain the malt liquor through your kidneys first???

:lol:


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

jlhaslip said:


> What happens if you strain the malt liquor through your kidneys first???
> 
> :lol:


It won't spalt quite as well probably, but you won't care. :icon_smile:


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