# Sweet Gum For Firewood



## tony marks (Nov 20, 2002)

THIS CONCERNS MY LITTLE VENTURE INTO FIREWOOD. IV NOTICED A GOOD MANY SWEET GUM ON THIS 25 ACRES. 10% AT LEAST . ILL BE RENTING A SPLITTER SO I ASSUME THAT WONT BE A PROBLEM. WHAT IM WONDERING IS ,IS THIS ALL RITE TO MIX IN WITH OTHER HARDWOOD WHEN U SELL IT.A LOT OF THESE WONT EVEN HAVE TO BE SPLIT UNLESS IT MAKES IT BETTER FIREWOOD.
THE KEY FOR ME IS THE CUSTOMER FEELIN LIKE THEY GOT A GOOD DEAL.
THE GUMS GOTTA GO EITHER WAY AS PT OF MY AGREEMENT WITH THE HOMEOWNER.THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION. PS I AVOID GUM LIKE THE PLAGUE WHEN WEDGE AND MALL SPLITTING. SO I DONT REALLY KNOW ITS VAUE AS FIREWOOD.


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## LostWater (Nov 20, 2002)

*I have sold it and it is ok*

I have sold sweet gum several times as firewood. The biggest concern you will have is to make sure that it is properly seasoned; at least a year. Otherwise, it will be too full of sap, will actually run water off of it when you put it on the splitter.

When it is properly dry, it has plenty of btu's, burns well, and makes a nice, dense wood.

I hope that is of some help to you.

Kindest Regards,


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## tony marks (Nov 20, 2002)

it is much help. i always avoided the gum . ive had a mall come back at me with enough force to take my head off if it had hit me . ill be selling the wood next yr so should be cured out well. thanks much.


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## xander9727 (Nov 20, 2002)

TONY,
STOP YELLING.
YOUR HURTING MY EYES!!!!!!

All caps means your yelling.


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## tony marks (Nov 20, 2002)

shhh i know it . my daughter had caps on and i sent without proofreading 
hope it didnt wake the baby or nothin.


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## tundraotto (Nov 21, 2002)

Tony - I know you can find other work - dont try to make a living off firewood. That does not pay the bills - hell it hardly pays the bills of having a free splitter, saws, beer, cigarettes, truck gas for delivery. Not to say that its not worth it as you can plan for the next fun toy purchase...


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## Gypo Logger (Nov 21, 2002)

Hi Otto, that may be true in 95% of most firewood producers,but I remember in the late 80's to early 90's I did 3 full cords a day, alone. This was from standing timber, felled, blocked, split and loaded on an F600 and dumped on the customers driveway.
I went from 100 cords anually to 600 when I decided to just do logging instead. At 500$ for three cords, I was doing alright.
My best ever was 70 cords in one month. I was faster than lightning then, but would not be able to do a full cord a day I dont think, cause my hearts not into it anymore.
For the first few years I used a four wheel drive tractor (Ford 5610) with loader and pto logging winch and split it all with a 6# maul and 066's with 16" bars. I wished I had of known about modifide saws then! I remember using a 3120 with 16" bar, but I wore it out in just 2 months, but I would get about 200 cords to an 066. The Huskies just self destruct when using them in such an application.
Gypo


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## tundraotto (Nov 21, 2002)

Times must have been tough John, but always remember to add your equipment costs to your daily costs and figure out what you made a day. It makes for a rought time to do that on a daily basis when/if you dont own the land and someone is dicking you around and you are wasting time.

PS. We (me and a saw freak friend of mine) got 35 cord of wood cut, bucked and split (in 5 days)and have been delivering it since - but its been for fun money for both of us. The saws we used did not miss a beat - 372GXP, 041, 136 and an 011AV. The splitter was a self made tractor PTO type and was slow, but hey it was 30+ hickory and red oak so it did OK even if it was a very slow cycle time splitter.


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## tony marks (Nov 21, 2002)

thanks for the tip tundrotta. and u are rite ive no buisiness trying to make a living w fire wood.i use to stay in cut for 8 rs at a time ,but about 4 is the limit now. this is just a filler for slow times this winter . instead of doing nothing but 
running my mouth at the dinner ,over coffee. i can be making next yrs income.
just picked up a 667 solo to hopefully make the job easier,on the big stuff. at 69 cc its the biggest ive ever owned.
i have a small solo and have been impressed with it.one thing ive noticed, on the one i have now, is the stihl parts [different color ] that are on it.be interesting to see if this ones like that.
ps got to admit when young i probably put out more w a saw in hand,than anybody i know here.. but nothin close to what gypo was talkin. course i was just using an old blue homelite.


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## Tony Snyder (Nov 21, 2002)

Sweetgum is often mixed in the firewood around here. It is O.K. after seasoning.

About the only things they usually don't put in around here is Hackberry (it stinks) and the other soft harwoods that don't have high btu values (soft Maple, Willow, Cottonwood, etc.)

Oakss are so predominate around here that it is the most used. (central Illinois)


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## LostWater (Nov 21, 2002)

*I agree, Firewood is not as productive anymore*

And it certainly won't pay the mortgage, particularly when you live in a transition zone from high rural to medium city (Roanoke, VA). Everybody and their brother is sawing firewood here.

It also funds my fun activities, and I do enjoy cutting as well. I also have a bonus, I own the 45 acres I work on, live on it, and have to maintain it anyways, so I might as well make a little money off of it.

I started off with a Poulan 2750 (p.o.s.) Had it fixed after it sheared the sprocket, bought a 029, used the poulan as backup, it finally died completely, either burnt coil ($40 minimum) or bent crank. Now I have an 031 off of *bay and it works ok with the 029. 

Mostly what is growing on my land is either Poplar or Locust. Not much in between. I cut a whole hell of alot of locust and put the poplar in my own stove.

Now, back to sweet gum, if I remeber right, it is in the same family as oak, but it is very important not to let it get dosey. Make sure you split it while semi green, if you split while dosey, you are wasting your time. If you let it season off of the ground, it makes a good burning, most of the night type wood.

Kindest Regards,


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## bwalker (Nov 21, 2002)

> I remember using a 3120 with 16" bar, but I wore it out in just 2 months, but I would get about 200 cords to an 066. The Huskies just self destruct when using them in such an application.


Hey Gypo. You trying to incite Otto and the rest of the elux underwear possy? LOL :angel:


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## Gypo Logger (Nov 21, 2002)

Hi Ben, yes you make a very good point.
Just as I cooked a 3120 with a 16" bar in 2 months cutting 50 cords of Rock Maple, Otto should have no problem slicing and dicing 35 cords of 7" pin oak in Arkansas with his 372, however, 7" in Arkansas is really the circumference and not the diameter.
So we are only talking pool que size stuff here for the Arckie Woodchopper. In fact, a saw really isnt required, but a nice brisk snap over the knee should break them lil suckers rather nicely into kindling size pieces.
Gypo


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## eyolf (Nov 21, 2002)

Re John Lambert's firewood exploits:

I remember firewood prices being high then, too. Locally, you still could hardly give it away, but If you were willing to haul to bigger towns you could do pretty well. But then the economy got better and better, people had less desire to feed the stove when they could run to the south for a vacation, etc.

If the current economic difficulties hang on for long, lots of people will have rescutitated their wood stoves, and as it eventually gets better, there will be a 2 or 3 year window when firewood prices are high again. 

In 1981 a friend and I bid on a 38 acre sale, and got it. He had an ancient tree farmer skidder, I had my old binder truck...we made a lot more money on the firewood than the sawbolts. Not enough for me to buy my own skidder, though, and the friend decided to not continue...


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## Keytone (Feb 21, 2009)

*Type of hardwood*

I recently purchased some 'hardwood' for my fireplace insert. It is definitely a 'soft' hardwood. The wood is white, the wood is not straight and and has a light redish type tinge to the bark. It does not burn very well either. I have to get a fire under way pretty good before it will burn with any consistency. Any idea what it might be? It is not pine.

Thanks.


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## Cantrellc123 (Mar 24, 2013)

I was looking in the BTU chart and couldn't find Sweet Gum. Is there another name it goes by in the chart?


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## Cantrellc123 (Mar 24, 2013)

This thread needs to be moved to the firewood section if any moderators read this.

Cantrell


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## cowroy (Mar 24, 2013)

Cantrellc123 said:


> I was looking in the BTU chart and couldn't find Sweet Gum. Is there another name it goes by in the chart?



If your simply wanting know where it belongs on the chart, from my experience it would fall close to maple. Not quite as good as ash or oak, but better than poplar or hackberry.


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## 2rod511 (Mar 24, 2013)

Sweet gum is good firewood. There is two major dilemmas when dealing with Sweet Gum.

1. Sweet Gum is very hard to split when it is green. The wood is twisted and chewy so don't try and split to big of a piece right down the middle because it will stick in the biggest of splitters. Carry an axe because it will not split cleanly.

2. Burning sweet gum before it dries out can stop your chimney up.

I burn the chit out of sweet gum in my outdoor wood boiler but before I bought that I hardly ever burnt it in my indoor wood stove.


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## WSJchester (Mar 24, 2013)

I expect we burned literally tons of it in a barrel stove in the deer camp in southeast Arkansas when I was a kid. Didn't too much worry about splitting it, just cut smaller ones to length and let them season for a year. Georgia Pacific never mentioned whether they minded us stealing firewood (I can't imagine why they would - they poison all the hardwood seedlings now and plant improved loblolly in sterile rows like corn - aaaccckkk). Mixed it with blowdown oak (water oak mostly) and lit it with "pine" (pitch pine or fat lighter from old pine stumps and roots).


I now live in the frozen north and confess I've never burnt it in a stove or even a fireplace.

-WSJ


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## barneyrb (Mar 24, 2013)

I always considered it right next to Cottonwood (last choice) for a fireplace. It will burn after an extended drying period but IMHO it will produce very little to no coals and a very fine ash. In my fireplace a nice bed of oak coals are where the heat comes from.


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## fearofpavement (Mar 24, 2013)

I don't pursue sweet gum but if I encounter it and it needs to be cut up anyway, I just mix it in with my other wood. Burns fine if seasoned (as any other wood requires) and I think it mainly gets it bad firewood reputation because it is hard to split. If you get careless it'll put the back of a maul right between your eyes when green.


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## tpope (Mar 24, 2013)

We burn the heck outta it... When it has been blown over on the farm and needs to be cut. Hard as you could ask for to split. Glad we use a 28 ton hydraulic splitter for that. Let it dry and you are good to go.

When I was selling firewood, we mixed it in at about 5 percent a load. Excess went to our house to be burned. If my wife can get it into the wood stove, it'll burn.


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## CRThomas (Jun 12, 2014)

I 


tundrmake a o said:


> Times must have been tough John, but always remember to add your equipment costs to your daily costs and figure out what you made a day. It makes for a rought time to do that on a daily basis when/if you dont own the land and someone is dicking you around and you are wasting time.
> 
> PS. We (me and a saw freak friend of mine) got 35 cord of wood cut, bucked and split (in 5 days)and have been delivering it since - but its been for fun money for both of us. The saws we used did not miss a beat - 372GXP, 041, 136 and an 011AV. The splitter was a self made tractor PTO type and was slow, but hey it was 30+ hickory and red oak so it did OK even if it was a very slow cycle time splitter.


I do firewood and make a comfy living about 70.000.00 th last year


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## axe2fall (Jun 12, 2014)

Any wood will burn. Sweetgum, also known as Liquid Amber will too. 
Getting it to that point is seldom worth the effort. 
I cut plenty of em but seldom burn any unless it's small enough to avoid splitting.
It needs hot coals and plenty of air to burn well and is not all that hot.
I call it rainy day firewood


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## GrassGuerilla (Jun 16, 2014)

Makes good firewood. Also warms me from the inside knowing that particular sweet gum won't rain those god forsaken balls anymore. One of the few trees I truly delight in burning;-)


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