What should I do with spalting sweet-gum?

[Snipe Hunter]

Give me some direction if you could.

We dropped about seven large sweetgum trees. To give you an idea, I have some at about 30" diameter. It's all been cut in small enough pieces to move but not split. It doesn't split well. These are two to three ft long. I can't give the stuff away and the prices I got to haul it were astronomical. It's stays wet for a long time so it's heavy even though it's been down for a year. Because it stays wet, it also rots quickly. It also is drying slowly because it under pretty dense cover in the summer. I'm seeing spalting in the smaller diameter pieces.

Anyway. What, if anything should I do with it? I don't have the time to work with it. I'm not really sure if the bigger stuff is sbalting or not. I'll cut into it when I get a chance to see. If it is, does it have any value to anyone?

[Steve N]

You either like Spalt or not, if you like it, you are generally appreciating the Spalt more than the grain of the wood, so any sugary wood that will Spaly is  
 in my book. It's all about the moisture. You can increase it, or stop it by increasing, or removing the moisture, the spores/fungi that cause it don't do well in a dry situation. As the prices of it go up, more and more people Spalt their own. Easy work, but you need to watch it, once it starts going it can become "punky" quickly.

Fine WoodWorking on rolling your own


Wood Database on Sweetgum


Hobbit House with pics it's often plain and boring, but sometimes it's like Forrest's box-a-chacklawts you don't know what you are going to get.

[Bill Holt]

Not sure, but I think bowl turners wood be interested.  Google wood turner clubs in your area.

[Snipe Hunter]

Steve, thanks. What a bunch of great information. I need to cut into some of this stuff to see what I've got.

Bill, thank you. I will once I see what's inside. There is a ton of gum here on the coast. It pops up like weeds so I doubt it's tough to get here. It burns well but it splits poorly do to the interlocking grain. It just breaks of in chunks.

[TomFromStLouis]

We QS nearly all the sweetgum we cut into lumber. Sweetgum warps a lot when drying plain sawn boards. This would not be an issue if you clamped your piles to dry them. 

If you like spalted woods I think you will love how sweetgum spalts.

[Arlin Eastman]

I know for sure the turners like the wood very much and with spalting even more.

I have never turned it before tho.  If you have any crotch wood where you cut about 8 to 12" below the crotch it should have some nice feathering in it to.

[Anak]

If and when I can find sweetgum out here it is $10 bd/ft.  Availability is pretty spotty.  Drives me bonkers seeing the $2 or $3 bd/ft prices back east.  All a function of supply.

I have never seen spalted.

I wonder if spalted would behave any better when it comes to ripping.  I can't imagine it would be worse.  

[Snipe Hunter]

"Edgy", a woodnetter and turner came by this morning to pick up some apple. We went out back to see the gum and he confirmed that it it indeed spalted. He's coming back, his trunk is full. You can see it in the end grain on the smaller logs which were just cut. I'll cut into the bigger stuff when I get a chance to see what I have. If it looks good, I'll get some of it off the ground and dry it.

You can see the big diameter stuff in the pic. There is another pile about the same size with smaller diameter  but longer logs from 10" to 16ish" diameter.