sweetgum

[gene cox]

has any one worked with sweetgum for bowls i have cut and made hard wood floors from it it warps real bad but it is one of the best looking floors i have every seen my question is sweetgum bowls my wood is air dryed for a year they crack real bad i dont have a problem with the other wood walnut oak black cherry elm hickory or maple little problem with cedar do you think dna will work on air dryed wood i have never turned green wood so i have not used dna on wood [ thanks fred im a little smarter now]:D

[Hilel Salomon]

Gene, I just now saw your post. I was searching for some sweetgum blanks when I saw this. I bought a 8x4 blank covered in wax and just now turned it. Boy was it wet. It is, to this point, the most spectacular non-burl blank I have ever turned, and I put it in DNA. I won't be back for about three weeks, but if you still want to know about it, pm me and I'll let you know. Hilel.

[Jim Heffner]

In my opinion, that is about the most worthless, no count wood that grows in this area. It is not even worth cutting up for a bon fire! eezlock

[Cody Colston]

Sweetgum is great for turning. It can also be spectacular when spalted. I've got a couple of rough-turned bowls drying now after dna soaking.

You should search the turning archives for a spalted sweetgum hollow form that Travis Stinson turned...or go to his site and view it. It's one of the most unusual forms I've seen.

Sweetgum is very wet when green. It will move a lot when drying but I've not had too much trouble with it cracking. I coat my blanks with anchorseal and dna soak the rough turned bowls.

BTW, this thread will probably get moved to the turning forum shortly. ;)

[Greg Hines, MD]

I know nothing of it for turning, but am glad that something can be done with it. My memories of sweetgum is that it is miserable to split for firewood. All that diving grain that you like for your bowls makes it hell to split into decent billets for the stove.

Doc

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Gene, Sweet gum is a fabulous wood to turn and is very interesting in it's various stages of spalting and aging. I have turned bowls, sinks, and various other items from this wood and highly recommend it.:)

[Bernie Weishapl]

Gene I have turned a couple of sweetgum bowls and found it to be really nice to turn. Didn't have any trouble with it.

[Frank Drew]

I tried to find some logs locally a number of years ago but came up empty. It grows around here but I couldn't find any down or coming down. I became interested because Richard Raffan likes it a lot (or maybe the Australian equivalent.)

[Greg Just]

Could there possibly be 2 or more types of Gum? When I first got started in turning I took a class where we turned a bowl from a Gum tree. I was told the wood came from the New Orleans area and was recovered after hurricane Katrina. This wood turned very nicely and finished easily. I was told by the instructor that this was not from a Sweet Gum tree. That was different. As a kid, I remember Sweet Gum as the tree that got those big spike balls we would throw at eash other.

[Nathan Hawkes]

In VA, we have a lot of "black gum" , which I think is aka "tupelo". It has somewhat teardrop shaped leaves; a little wider in the tip 2/3 than the rear. They have dark little berries, and have really pretty purple/red fall colors!!!! I can't speak to the woodgrain though. Never cut any.