Just got me a truckload of sweet gum

I was hooked up with a landscape/tree service for several years and the brought many truck loads of chips as well as great wood almost all oak but cherry, locust and walnut too. He would even cut the rounds 18 to 20 inches for me and load the trucks with a bobcat. This enabled me to get way ahead on wood. At least 5 year plan. Two years ago they sold all of their tree equipment and just concentrated on landscaping.
My family uses another tree guy who has also dumped chips and wood here too.
They use no heavy equipment other than Several trucks to dump chips and wood. I love their chips but the wood was always too short because the would hand load the trucks and the big rounds were just too big for them to lift. I hate splitting short 10 to 12 inch rounds.

Well they were cutting across the street and I went over and told them that they could dump the chips. That went just fine.
The next day, a knock on the door and they are back with two trucks. One truck has chips and the other rounds. So sure I take them. He can dump the rounds on top of the chips I spread the other day. The chips I dump and spread in another spot. The chips have a lot of these seed balls mixed in.

Went out to check wood and it wasn’t too short mostly around 16 inches some shorter and some longer.
Sweet Gum. Now I’m worried. I remember reading comments about how stringy and hard to split it was.

 

First load of chips I spread with Sweet Gum dumped on top.
Second pic is second load of chips spread out.

 

Yep, you're about to enter the unenjoyment zone lol.

 

We had a break in the rain this morning and it was warm 55°. So I decided to split one skid of wood to see how bad it was to split. It was cut only a day ago. Most of the rounds I split were 14 - 16 inches but there were bigger ones at least 20”.
Not too bad. Splitting the 16” in half was the toughest. The top furthest away from the wedge didn’t break clean and I’d have to rotate round 180° to finish split. After that they split just fine. Very different splitting than the Oak I usually do. With Oak the wedge only needs to go in a couple of inches and the wood pops open. The sweet gum wants the wedge to travel it’s length or you have to wrestle the splits apart.

 

How good is this stuff to burn? Similar to maple but better than pine?
Shoulder season wood only?

 

Partner, You wuz lucky!

 

Not sure if sweet gum is the same as black gum aka tupelo, but its worse than elm. If thats all i had to hoard i would quit as its next to impossible to hand split, but you have a hydro, so.

 

I took a quick look on the FHC BTU chart but did not find it. Could that be a hint?

 

Here is a pic of the seed balls

 

I’ll finish splitting it since I have it. I usually give wood away to my neighbor and daughter and this good for that.
Probably have cord or two of this stuff

 

Very good idea thanks

 

Here’s some more pics. Moved it next to some skids of pine. The skids behind it stacked two high are all newly split red oak

 

Burns quick. Bitch to split. Shoulder wood

 

It’s best to not split down the center but shave off pieces as you work it around. It’s not as bad as black gum but it is fairly miserable. Once split it dries quickly but I would keep it top covered as it also fits easily if out in the weather. It burns ok. Kind of middle of the road

 

Meh, it was free and delivered in rounds to your place. You got a hydraulic splitter? No problem if you do. You’ll have some good shoulder season wood. It’s heat.

 

Thanks for the tip. I did find it easier to split near the edge, roll a little, split, roll etc.
Just harder to roll the whole 16” round.
I’ll let this sit split till next year. Then try burning some in the fall.

 

Other than hard to split, I recall it as smelling bad when burned. It's a shame it's not a great wood, it grows like weeds around here, grow fast, and mature trees can be huge.

 

Burns fine. Nearly self kindling from the strings. Leaves a fair bit of ash.

Not as much BTUs as some of the heavier stuff, but you'll figure out where it fits in your wood stash.

I heated one year with mostly sweet gum. Hand split. Not sure how much difference splitting difficulty means if you're using hydraulics.

 

thanks everyone, well I have it and will split it all. I think the guys are coming back Monday or Tuesday with some more wood and chips. lets see what happens next