Picked up a cord of this on roadside. Real fresh - cut 1 week ago or less. Not much of a smell. Worst spitting wood I've ever encountered. Like hitting concrete. I can't split an 8" round / 1 ft long with the maul. Noodling everything. Maybe spits easier in a few months? Thanks, Doug.
Sweet gum usually has barker that is rougher and with deeper furrows than I am seeing in your pictures, but maybe it's just the angle of the pictures. Gum does have whitish colored wood like I see but bigger pieces will start to show a darker center. It does split like absolute hell and is as stringy as can be. Ultimately, it's not worth the effort and I will generally throw it in the owb without splitting if I can.
I left the trunk base pieces on roadside. ~22" diam - 1 ft above ground. Maybe this is a younger sweetgum and bark is smoother. I got a load of sweetgum ~ 10 years ago and vowed never to touch it again. Well, I'll just have to noodle this.
I don't think that's sweet gum. If you leave it in rounds it will start to grow a black/blue fungus on the ends.
