I Never Believed I Would Turn Down Free Logs!!

So, I'm flying down the road at 55mph when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a chipper and a tree crew in the final stages of a takedown clean up.

Beautiful, bright yellow foliage I see sticking out of the truck. I say to myself SUGAR MAPLE!

After taking care of business I stopped back as the last log was loaded on the dump trailer. I catch the boss at the end of the driveway and he says he has 2 tandem dump trucks full plus the dump trailer and it's all mine, delivered! Then I see the leaves close up.... Sweet gum not maple!
I thanked him for his kindness and politely said no thanks! Too much hassle to split for too little reward in the heat department. He said he had met few people who knew about sweet gum and he gets a good laugh every time he dumps a load of gum in some 'rookie's' yard.

On the bright side he took my name, address and phone number and said he be in touch soon with some 'good wood.' We shall see....

 

Whew, nice save! (and recovery!)

 

That's funny.... a large sweet gum fell across my path in the woods a few weeks ago and I cut it away and kept walking.

I will say that green fresh cut sweet gum seems to split more easily. I'm hand splitting so it's not usually worth my effort.

 

Excitement then disappointment and relief. Good thing he hadnt dropped it yet. Nice to have a new connection. Hope he comes through...without any sweet gum.

 

It's important to be able to identify a trees species when hoarding. Good save.

 

That officially qualifies you as a wood snob. Welcome to the club. There’s 2 species in my do not take list. Gum is one, the other I don’t have to state.

 

Sycamore?

 

I know the feeling. Turned downed this sweet gum back in May

 

Brad, you said "BG" but I guess you meant, "SG?" That's sweet gum, not black gum. And black gum isn't any better, lol. We grow 'em big down here, and that's a big 'un.

Good save, Ralphie. Oh, how I wish, SG was good 'cause I could get an endless supply. I just wish white oak grew so fast.

 

My bad. Yes i did mean sweet gum. Thanks for catching that. Ill correct it. Never have tried to split SG. Tried BG once and lerned my lesson fast. This was hand splitting.

 

The only thing worse than gum is large gum. Hopefully you have found a new connection though.

 

Is sweet gum worse than elm? I have no experience with it as firewood.

 

Once its dry, it burns fast, not much heat

 

Yes. SW usually splits horrible.. and most people who burn Elm state that it at least makes good heat....

 

Yup...and elm actually doesn't split that bad, if done correctly...

 

Care to show us on a freshly felled tree? Vids and stuff. And how did I split incorrectly when I produced those famous pics I share? Such a high maintenance wood... verrrry needy.

 

Too green

 

FIFY

 

So although it might not burn that long, would it help to let it dry out first before splitting? Or is it just so low btu it’s not worth the work? I can’t find it on any btu charts.