Had 2 sweet gum logs that I harvested from clearing for a food plot a year and 1/2 ago, which I have been dreading. My neighbor didn't want to mill them, so this morning I drug them to the processing area. The larger diameter log was ~20" and 10 ' long. I bucked it and split the 1st 4 rounds. Didn't have my phone, but all of those 4 rounds split with one ram stroke and the halves split as good as red oak. Retrieved my phone and started taking pics of the process, starting with the last 3 rounds. This is indicative of how the full size rounds split in half. Only a couple of slivers to hold it while I snapped a picture. The two halves, with none of the normal $%#&@%$ chewed up mess that sweet gum normally exhibits. I even got some good rectangle splits for cribbed ends. I haven't experienced this with sweet gum before. Most of the individual splits, from the half rounds, popped clean with only a half stroke of the ram. Unnatural. I hope the other 20' section splits the same way. Getting ready to tackle that one now.
very fortunate result indeed from sweet gum. The gum I've let sit a while seems to split better than the fresh stuff. Maybe there is a sweet spot between "impossible to split" and "rotten". If we can figure that out, we're onto something because it isn't bad as firewood and it is surely easy to come by.
I don't know. Maybe I'll try it again as there are plenty to be had here. I think it was just a freak of nature, in a good way.
