Nasty old American Sweetgum

[SDB777]

No sense in just milling a chunk of Eastern Red Cedar for a single bowl blank!  Heckfire NO!!!

Here is a couple of chunks of American Sweetgum, as you can see, this stuff is boring...after all, it has a few colorations, some spalting, and weird things going on inside.  So BORING!

The peices standing up on the left side are only 1/2in thickness, I'll be putting those on the RingMaster bowl lathe.  The rest are going to be made into pen blanks, they'll need a few months in the shed to dry the rest of the way.




Few close-up teasers!







BTW, an unphoto group of bowl blanks made their way into the shed too.



Scott (smells something special) B

[joasis]

I could see that in a rustic chest....so is sweetgum a good project material? I love the look.

[Kirk Allen]

It moves a LOT with minor moisture changes.

[SDB777]

Yeah, for some reason the cell collapse is pretty overwhelming....

American Sweetgum trees were used mostly for railroad ties when oak was hard to come by....and later it became the 'substructure' for furniture that gets 'covered'(to be read as couches and other stuff where the wood isn't seen).



I'll be slicing those pieces into pen blanks, and selling them for about $0.40/each....simple enough to figure the boardfoot pricing 

Two of the thinner cut pieces have made their way through the planer and are waiting for their turn on the ringmaster bowl lathe....I normally get $25 for a bowl, there is seven bowls in each flitch....I know, more math....jeez!




Profitable day to say the least and I had FUN!!!!




Scott (making cha-ching is fun too) B

[Stevem]

I've sawn one sweet gum and most of the wood was nearly as white as Holly.  Made a couple of pens out of it for the owner of the tree and split the rest of the boards with him.  They're sitting in my shed all twisted and curved.

Read somewhere that sweet gum was once used as a substitute for mahogany.  That had to be from fairly large trees, based on my one experience, with a lot of the dark heart wood, which I had little of in the tree I cut.

[Post Oakie]

Looks like you've got a lot of holes to fill.  The right person will love it!  Here's a sample from a sweetgum log I salvaged from the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado.  Turned out nice!

[SDB777]

Tons of holes!

Those worms are in every piece I've cut up.  I'm guessing a regional type thing?
They are about 3/8ths of and inch long and very white colored.  As I don't study 'bugs' I sure wouldn't even try to guess what they are.....



That board looks pretty nice...almost looks like you ran it through the planner it's so smooth!  Salvaged timber is always cool for some reason........







Scott (cookie dough rules) B

[furu]

Sure has a nice looking figure in the grain.  If it is that unstable do the blanks that are turned have problems?