Scrounged up some wood I wish I hadn't. Gum?

[wahoowad]

Spent more time and energy than I wish bucking and loading some unidentified wood. Brought it home and it was the stringiest crap for me yet. I stopped splitting it after the second log cuz it was so stringy.

It was a live tree but had been bent over by a massive Poplar that fell on it. No leaves except for one smallish 'fat teardrop' shaped leaf. I'm unable to identify it using my various references. Moisture appeared at the ends when the splitter bore down on it. Anybody recognize it from this pic? I'm in central Virginia.

I'm gonna set it aside and try to split it when it freezes. I've never split frozen. We don't always get sustained days of 20's temps (sometimes we do, sometimes we don't). Will a couple days below freezing freeze up a 8x18" log? I may not get that for another month or two.

Fortunately I scored some maple too. It was bone dry when I split it and I'm already burning some this evening!

 

[BrotherBart]

Sweet gum. God's cruel joke on wood burners. Burn it as logs. After a couple of years or so of seasoning.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Or, turn them on their side and quarter (rip) them with the chainsaw. That's my usual approach for twisted, knotty, or otherwise unsplittable rounds.

 

[DavidV]

they burn ok but the effort to split them makes em trash. I had a monster sweet gum out front about 18 feet off the front of the house. HAd it taken down and wish I had had them take it away...I knew better but just can't pass up fire wood. Don't try to split it conventionally. You sheer it from the edge. if you have any way of getting it stacked up and off the ground for a few months that's a good start. it wicks moisture up terribly, it's heavy as all get out when green. It's almost like balsa when dry. Rots quickly. easy prey for insects. I have some in the stove right now with oak and elm. If you get it off the ground for a month or so it will become easier to split. Work from the outside and shear off pieces, rotate around and keep on going. it's very tough work...very tough. Don't even mess with it till it's dried out or you'll throw your shoulder out. If you dry it out it carves very nicely but it's fairly soft.

 

[wahoowad]

I'm using a splitter but I'm having to go full stroke - I can't just break it's back and pull it apart. Just a pain in the dadgum ass. I'll keep it as logs and try to split it later as suggested. At least I now have something heavy to put in the back of the truck when it snows.

is it really gum? I don't know. I just put thatin the subject line as it was my best guess. Worst scrounge ever. But, I assure you, it will get burnt.

 

[wg_bent]

Jeez..that stuff looks worse than elm! Is it possible? That's not a joke...that's a frat hazing in each log.

 

[johnsopi]

Thats sweetgum. I splitt some this after noon.It had been sitting a few weeks. Was not too bad, but is stringy.
I have a place where I can as much as I want 20 truck loads maybe more.

 

[BrotherBart]

I'm using a splitter but I'm having to go full stroke - I can't just break it's back and pull it apart. Just a pain in the dadgum ass. I'll keep it as logs and try to split it later as suggested. At least I now have something heavy to put in the back of the truck when it snows.

is it really gum? I don't know. I just put thatin the subject line as it was my best guess. Worst scrounge ever. But, I assure you, it will get burnt.

Definatly sweet gum. I have busted a bunch of it. Pull the rope, let the splitter get up to speed and punish that damn stuff.

When I was hand splitting every bit of it went in the stove whole.

 

[pistonslap]

Cut it into big pieces and save some for chopping blocks. I do most of my splitting by hand. My neighbor gave me some sweetgum and watched thru his windows and laughed his butt off listening to all the names I called it.

 

[wg_bent]

I'd bet my technique of cutting elm into disks would work. Where on the BTU/lb scale does that stuff land?

 

[wahoowad]

Yeah, cutting it into discs sounds like a workable option. Maybe I can use it as a training opportunity to get my gal some chainsaw experience. I'll touch up the chain just enough so it will work but drop hints a new Stihl would cut a lot faster than my cheap old saw.

I can't find gum on a firewood btu chart

 

[bruce56bb]

this is a sweet gum pod. i have one of these in my yard and when mowing, i have to be careful of where the discharge is pointing.


http://jschumacher.typepad.com/joe/sweetgum.jpg

 

[johnsopi]

This chart has Gum on it http://www.burnsbest.com/Info/woodvalue.php

 

[Mo Heat]

... No leaves except for one smallish 'fat teardrop' shaped leaf. I'm unable to identify it using my various references.

It may well be sweetgum, the bark looks about right, but the leaf you describe sounds completely wrong. Sweetgum leaves have five (or 7) distinct points, sort of like a maple leaf but without the detailed, busy look. Was the leaf actually attached?

Here's a sweetgum leaf link: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/senior/ornament/Sweet118.htm

I cut a sweetgum down in the b-n-l's yard a few years back. Went through two chains from all the gum varnish accumulation making the chain dull as hell. Both chains eventually refused to cut at all. Weird tree. Weird fruit. Funky wood. No good.

You might have more luck splitting them at half the length you started with. Try cutting one of them in half and splitting it.

 

[ourhouse]

That does not look fun to split by hand.

 

[wahoowad]

Mo,

The one leaf I saw was pretty deformed, but definately was not that gum leaf you posted. Mine appeared to be an untoothed simple leaf. The wood description of "excess water" I saw somewhere for another gum sure fit this tree. It looked waterlogged and beads of water formed when the splitter ram torqued down on it. But it definately was alive when I cut it up.

 

[wahoowad]

It might be this - a blackgum? Looks a lot more like the leaf, and the wood matches everybody's description.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/DENDROLOGY/SYLLABUS/factsheet.cfm?ID=60