I had a sweet gum tree near the driveway break off half way up during some recent winds. I cut it up and just for fun made some splits. I always thought of this tree as just a giant stringy weed but the splits looked really cool. Might split the rest and throw it in the stacks. Why not?
You did good if you split that by hand. It's decent shoulder season wood. Makes a lot of ash, little coals, dries fast.
Not sure how long it was on the ground but sweet gum does have a small window of when it splits somewhat decent. Maybe you hit that time window?
Scrounged some gum (aka tupelo) last Fall and didnt know what it was at the time. I ended up taking one log, bucked and split it. A memorable and forgettable experience being a strict hand splitter. Could be a different variety though. IME fresh cut (regardless of species) hand splits a lot easier than if left to dry.
I went back and split the rest. It was easy and still very wet at 30% plus. Like someone said I hit the window of time. The trunk is in the pic. So definitely a sweet gum.
