Anybody turned any Liquid Amber?

[Bob Borzelleri]

I stopped in a local hardwood place a couple of days ago and found two good sized pieces of spalted Liquid Amber and a few blanks of Cypress. I have started with the Cypress and have just been looking at the Liquid Amber to envision what shapes might be hiding in those blanks.

Strangely enough, my sister came over today and asked me to remove a tree that is in her front yard that has been losing branches (nearly boinking her neighbor's car). It just happens to be a Liquid Amber.

So I've gone from never thinking about Liquid Amber to having a fairly large supply in two days.

Anyone have any experience with it?

[Jamie Buxton]

The tree is generally called liquid amber. The lumber is called sweetgum, or when the darker heartwood is selected out it is called red gum. Some folks are fond of it, but I've always thought of it like poplar -- soft for a hardwood, and not particularly distinguished appearance.

[James Williams 007]

I roughed out a large blank of red gum and liked it. The blank I got had a ton of colors running through it but they were not well defined, still a cool looking wood and we have tons of it in the south! I don't remember any sweet gums in CA growing up?

[Harlan Coverdale]

It's actually spelled liquidambar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua), but I've turned it and it's nice wood, but the pieces I had were rather plain. Easy wood to work with, though, and I suspect the spalting will look nice in the finished piece.

[Charles Bouchelle]

someone posted pic recently on here of a piece they did of Gum,and the spalting looked great.do a search of gum take a look

[Frank Van Atta]

I've turned pieces from wood sold under both names - Liquidambar and Red Gum - and have found it to be beautiful wood and easy to turn.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Thanks for the replies. My first search brought up several comments from Australian turners. A few were less than pleased with their final products. They cited cracks and poor finish. Others were more enthused about the wood.

James, my sister bought the house from a landscape architect who apparently planted 6 of them as twigs. They are about 35 years old.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Bob I would get it. I have turned it but also called Red Gum. Turns well and is a really nice wood.

[Bill Hunt]

Here in Mississippi it's just plain Sweet Gum. It's a trash tree that can have some incredible spalting. One of the largest I've seen came from my front yard. a circumference of over 6'. After hurricane Ivan blew a limb about 75' through a window the local power company took it down for me. A lot of turners got a lot of wood from it.
as I sit at the computer I can see 10-15 large trees. after harvesting a pine plantation we recently had Loblolly pine replanted. Now we will have a problem with the sweetgum coming up everywhere in the new trees. So in the fall we'll have to spray to kill the trash trees so the pines can grow with less competetion.

But it can be very nice to turn. I turn turkey calls from it as well as bowls and spheres.
Bill