Sweet gum ?

[hardwaregrrl]

Yes, I'm aware of the pitfalls and PIA splitting techniques... Had 2 trees taken down in my yard. One was dead standing...wondering about when to split and if I can leave the rounds on the ground for a month or two?? A friend is going to help me split and will take half, but he can't help till mid November.

Should I cover them or get them off the ground ASAP?? Tia

 

[BrotherBart]

Won't make much difference. The stuff is wet as a sponge just off the stump. If you are hand splitting, I feel for ya.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Be a good friend and give him ALL of it. If you don't, well don't say I didn't warn you.

 

[Scooter422]

Yeah give that stuff away! Split some this past spring and was pretty horrible using hydraulics! Looked nothing like firewood when I was done. It went in the fire pit pile!

 

[hardwaregrrl]

Ha! You guys are too much.....this will be my first year burning in the house. And I learn best the hard way.....besides, I live in ghettoburbia so this stuff will smell way better than that burnt plastic ala crack smell floating around. And I have no wood for the shoulder season and since I'm in Atlanta, the whole winter here is probably shoulder season.....I figure the dead one might be good in January.

I split a few small pieces with my little 4.5# maul, surprised it wasn't terrible.



But I've got a few more to go...



Is this stuff worth using as kindling??? Wondering if I should split a bunch small for that purpose.

 

[Longstreet]

Where are you in the city? You are welcome to borrow my hydro splitter. You will probably need it if its like the sweetgum i have...

 

[hardwaregrrl]

Where are you in the city? You are welcome to borrow my hydro splitter. You will probably need it if its like the sweetgum i have...

Heya LS....I'm in East Atlanta area.....or more specifically Gresham Park. What part of town are you in? That would be awfully nice of you and I'm happy to throw a rental fee in....was going to rent a 22 ton.

 

[Longstreet]

Smyrna, right off 285.

PM me if you are serious about borrowing it. I don't need any kind of rental fee, I only use it a couple times a year.

 

[Omaha419]

Seriously. Get rid of it. Not worth the work. Doesn't burn with a damn and many will tell you it stinks.

 

[Fred Wright]

We used to cut & burn sweet gum every year. I'll share our experiences with it.

By all means, you'll need a hydro splitter to work up gum. I'll never forget the time years ago I buried two wedges in a gum round and it wasn't a bit fazed. Dad saw that and laughed. We had to burn the round to get our wedges back.

Gum tends to split better and smoother after it's set in the round for a few months. This could be your scenario with a standing dead tree. Gum really doesn't split well green off the stump. Tears and shreds is more like it.

You can leave the rounds set on the ground for a few months; they're mostly water weight anyhow. You'll probably see some mushrooms start growing on it. By the way, sweet gum is a preferred wood for growing mushrooms.

Burns OK after a year stacked, Burns even better after a couple years stacked and top covered. Heat output is mediocre when you consider the bull work involved in splitting it. And it leaves a lot of ash behind.

Probably will work well for kindling but there are easier ways to get kindling than wrassling with gum.

 

[kennyp2339]

Lots of water weight in those rounds, but I agree with other posters, split it, stack it, burn it after a year.

 

[hardwaregrrl]

I'm a total noob but I learn much better by experience. I've only had a few interactions with wood stoves.....I'm a flooring contractor by trade and did a job in a farm house that was heated by wood stove only. It made the job difficult in many ways, and one was instead of heating with 4 stoves, i would only get one. The other 3 were sitting on the subfloor where I would be installing....so I basically lived with a Jotul for 3 weeks. It looked like a 118 and I learned a bit about different heat output per wood species. I remember the day I ran out of oak and hickory and only had cherry left....it really didn't put out heat or last like the oak did. Made the cure time of the poly a bit longer..... So the gum will be a learning process but it's one I'm willing to take on. I appreciate all of your help and luckily Longstreet will let me borrow his splitter.

 

[Wood Duck]

I wouldn't try to make Sweet Gum kindling. For kindling you want something that is really easy to split and splits straight. I usually make pine kindling, and only the most straight-grained pieces of pine become kindling. Make it easy on yourself and split the gum only as much as necessary.

 

[hardwaregrrl]

Smyrna, right off 285.

PM me if you are serious about borrowing it. I don't need any kind of rental fee, I only use it a couple times a year.

Pm sent...

 

[Fred Wright]

One more thing... gum tends to give off showers of sparks. Looks like an Independence Day fireworks show in the stove. Not recommended for fireplace use.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

I've burned a lot of Gum in a 17vl. It smells aweful, rots FAST, and leaves a lot of fluffy ash. Not to mention how bad it is to split. But it did throw out some heat. Much easier and better firewood out there to deal with, but if it's all you got then just be sure to try and keep it covered. It's a lot of work to let rot if you don't.

 

[owingsia]

I hand split gum... if I take down a live tree (Often with gum I want it out of the area so I am taking it down green as can be)... I find that if you cut it into rounds and stack on pallets for 6-12 months... IE (Set it and forget it) after sitting off the ground in rounds for that time period it will split very easily..... compared to the disaster you get when wet. I also find that once it splits using this method that it will be 15-22% within a year or less.... sure it makes this wood take longer to process but makes things easier.

 

[Fred Wright]

Agreed, keep stacked gum covered. It does tend to rot rather quickly. Plus, it soaks up water like a sponge. If that stuff gets rained on you'll have a devil of a time getting it to burn.

Yup, wet gum stinks to high heaven when it burns. I honestly don't miss it. Not one little bit.