I was just wondering if a gum tree has a sweet smell when burning? does anyone have any experience with burning it? it smelled like a cross between maple syrup. and very sweet chocolate milk.
No I haven't burned any. That's about the only tree I pass up on when cutting. It's so stringy when splitting. I do cut it for my father in law if he pulls some to the wood yard with the loader though,
I cut and split a 60 foot gum tree once. Won't do it again. It's one of the worst splitting trees. Doesn't burn that great either. If that's all I had I'd be cutting splitting and stacking it though. I've got access to Maple, Birch, Oak, and locust so the gum trees can stay where they are.
I burned sweet gum a few years ago. It was difficult to split, similar to sycamore. It produced heavy smoke and shot off quite a few sparks. Not good when using a fireplace.
Welcome to the club, MO. Wood! I think your gonna like it here! Stop by the introduce yourself thread and tell everybody your here.
Sorry Felter I don't recall what it smelled like burned. I do remember after being split it was a little sticky and had a sappy odor to it.
Felter, where are you? There are lots of trees called gum trees around the world. Many of them are not related at all - totally different trees.
Welcome MO. Wood , You're gonna like it here, I guarantee it. We like pics, dogs, beer and spending your money on helping you feed your addiction, er, I meant supplementing your hoard...so you got that going for you right off the bat.... Again-show us your toys, your hoard and dont hesitate to seek counsel here, we'll help, (see enable) and bring you into the fold... Nice to meet ya!
Here in Australia we burn gum trees all the time. In fact, that's about all we ever burn! There are hundreds of different types of gumtrees. A well-known species is River Redgum, which burns slow and hot. It is also widely used for smoking foods. Another common species, especially overseas, is Sugar gum. I couldn't really say what they smell like when burning, all hardwoods smell similar to me... Other types of Eucalypts, such as Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash are closer to evergreen trees: they split easy and burn quickly with a sappy smell. I've attached a PDF of some common Australian species and their characteristics FYI.
Welcome to the forum jdind !!! Glad to have you. Pictures and beer are what we like. If you're gonna be here, you should pick up a few cases of XXXX or some VB for the group. I believe what people commonly refer to as "gum" or "sweet gum" in the US is Liquidambar styraciflua while the gums in Australia are predominantly Eucalyptus Sp. Thanks for sharing the .pdf. I have not personally burned any "Sweet gum" or Eucalyptus trees.
I've burned plenty of sweet gum. Don't really get a lot of scent in the house with any wood that I burn, but from the little bit I do get if I open the door quickly, I'd say it smells pretty good. I think a sweet smell is a fair description. Surely better than the tree of heaven I'm burning right now. It is terrible to split (I hand split everything that I split) but it does split somewhat easier (less hard is more accurate) if dried in log form for a while. I do like it very much as firewood because all the strings and fibers that make it such a pain to split act as built-in kindling when it comes time to burn. That is really nice for this time of year when it is one fire a day. It does seem to produce a fairly high amount of ash. Rake the coals when the flames are just about gone and the sparks will give you a nice little fireworks show
Just read in another post that black gum and persimmon look closely the same..... Is it possible you have persimmon? I have experience with black gum (aka tupelo), but none with persimmon...
