Sweet gum?

That didn't look like the bark of a sweet gum tree I burned this year - much deeper grooves. We have them all over and they drop those spikey balls everywhere. In my experience, it burned in the mid-range BTUs, but I waited a year to buck it up after it was in rounds...with a spitter. It was VERY easy then. If you have a splitter, go for it now. If not, wait a year after cutting in rounds. It's brutal to cut with just an axe/maul. I think the wood actually laughs at you. Very demoralizing.

Doesn't look like sweet gum to me either. All the gum I've had had darker and rougher bark

That don't look like no sweet gum to me. Looks like elm. Sweet gum will have bark like a ash but a lot darker and deeper, great back scratching tree.

I only see mostly Oak leaves on the ground, several species, but no sweet gum leaves.

Rebelduckman said:

It fell right by a few Oaks. This definitely isn't oak

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Probably not. Just an observation. I always look for Leaves on the ground when there aren't any on the tree. there should be some sweet gun leaves somewhere close if that's what it is.

Gum got the right name for sure. Axe bounces off even the splitter splits it with a zigzag.

The twig is a dead giveaway - Liquidambar styraciflua it is. Love saying this and emphasizing STI-RA-C-FLEW-WA

Nope, not Sweetgum bark and doesn't look like Blackgum (Black Tupelo) either.
I wonder if those lanceolate leaves are from that tree?

avalondouglas said:

That didn't look like the bark of a sweet gum tree I burned this year - much deeper grooves. We have them all over and they drop those spikey balls everywhere.

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+1

It burns decent.......but you really need a friend with a hydro splitter (or a whole lot of time and wedges)

I believe it to be sweet gum. Google sweet gum, the photos that come up are a dead ringer for this tree. My original thought was Soft Maple, and the bark has the same appearance but the OP describes difficult splitting which shouts "GUM".

I just walked out and snapped a couple of pics. I guess he could have Sweetgum there, but I have my doubts. But yeah, "hard to split" says something....
Hey, DixieDuck, did you see any of those spiny balls on the ground?

That's where we get dag gum it!!

I looked at another Sweetgum, about 14" (the one in the pics is 20".) The only part that had the smoother bark was the branches, like the bigger tree. The trunk all the way up had the rough bark.

BrotherBart said:

Hammer it enough to split it and if it has more hair than a bear in the splits and corkscrew twisted grain, it is Gum. Only way I can smash the stuff is the hydro splitter. Then it dries to something like paper and goes up in a flash in the stove.

The stuff if totally useless.

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Hey BB. why don't you just tell us you HATE IT! I have cut and split and cussed a lot of wood in 40 years, but never had any of it that didn't keep me warm.

BrotherBart said:

I HATE it!

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OK, I got it now,

BrotherBart said:

it dries to something like paper and goes up in a flash in the stove.

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tfdchief said:

I have cut and split and cussed a lot of wood in 40 years, but never had any of it that didn't keep me warm.

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What little I can find on Sweetgum is saying it's a medium-heat wood, maybe about like soft Maple but I saw a thread where someone said it burned up pretty quickly, and punked out quick if not covered.