Red Gum/Sweet Gum Plywood Source

[Scott Coffelt]

I am in the process of designing kitchen cabinets for the new house. I saw a kitchen disign I just love at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Some company built the kitchen display areas. I tried to locate them, but no success.

Anyways, the cabinets where Birdseye Maple frames and drawer fronts. The doors had Red Gum panels, but from what I have researched they most likely are Sweet Gum. They were more of a light wood with sap streaks looking more like spalting versus thick or wide dark streaks. Anyone know of a source that would carry something like this in a 1/4" plywood? Next time up to NFM, if I can remember I will take a camera and see if I can take some pics.

[Jim Becker]

Scott, if you go to a "real" plywood distributor, they can get just about anything you need. Not inexpensively likely, but get, yes! Try woodfinder.com to see if there are any sources near you.

[Scott Banbury]

Sweetgum plywood might be hard to find. There's not much of a market for it these days except as secondary wood, RR ties and pulp.

At one time Sweetgum was a premium wood, used for natural stained moulding and other millwork in Midsouthern and Midwestern cities from the 1890s-1950s. This Sweetgum, marketed as Redgum was entirely heartwood from the center of old growth trees in the Mississippi Delta. From what my ecology buddies tell me, these trees were often 200-600 years old.

Young Sweetgums, the kind we have now, typically have a relatively small area of heartwood and the sapwood, "Sapgum", is very unstable and stains poorly. Because the diameter added each year is less as the tree gets older, old Sweetgums have a lot more heart.

Pictured here is a 12' piece of 6/4 from a 120 year old Sweetgum that grew in the yard of a house that was built in 1922. The tree had grown in in a closed canopy for the first forty years of it's life, resulting in a tall straight, relatively branchless trunk before being released by the lot clearing. Unfortunately, the tree was poorly cared for and a top down rot from a broken limb limited the sound wood to one 12 ft log.

On the bright side of life, it was a little over 36" in diameter and yielded a little over 800 ft of lumber and turning squares.

[Jim Becker]

Scott B, what about veneer? Could Scott C source that for his panels?

[Scott Banbury]

Yes, "Redgum" veneer should be available at most veneer suppliers.

In fact, "Flame Gum", produced by quarter slicings, is one of the most spectacular veneers I can think of.

[Scott Coffelt]

Thanks, any chance of locating a picture of the last? The cabinets I saw were definitely, not that dark. More streaky in nature. Veneer is an option, I could attach to 1/4" plywood.