sweetgum slabs

[Joey Grimes]

I ran fans on them the first day they were cut.

[Den Socling]

I was looking on the Internet for a company that made an inquiry. During the process I came across a company that was advertising White Oak Slabs. Look at the cracks in this junk!


 
I would consider that firewood.

[redbeard]

Slabs with defect seem to sell better, something intriguing about a craftsman fixing mother nature with a bow tie, Dutchman and colorful gravel and lots of epoxy. They even put lighting in those cracks. Use to think the same thing when I would see defect Den, 
But when folks were pulling stuff from my burn pile and not buying the grade quality, I had to rethink my marketing.

[Den Socling]

You're right. Last week one of our customers sent pictures of pecan slabs with cracks along the pith. I told him to add a bow tie and charge extra.

[YellowHammer]

I'm generalizing here, but I've noticed a pattern.  It's funny, but when most guys are buying slabs, they seem to want it perfect, no cracks or defects.

Women, on the other hand, seem to like the cracks and flaws in some slabs, and will pick them out for purchase over the perfect ones.  It's always intersting when a wife says to her husband that she would rather have the slab with the cracks, splits, knots and other defects, rather than the perfect one.  I sometimes wonder if the husband catches on that maybe that's what she saw in him.... :D

[WDH]

I see exactly the same thing. 

[LeeB]

Happy Birthday Danny.

[Den Socling]

Yes! Happy Birthday. Wish I was only 57!  :D Oh I got mixed up. You're right behind me, Danny. Lee's the baby at 57.

[Savannahdan]

Happy Birthday WDH.  This topic reminds me that I slabbed some sweetgum quite a while back and stacked them.  Just haven't had time to check them out.  Give me a few weeks and I'll see what's there and take some pics.  Wife and doc won't let me do anything for a while.

[caveman]

Happy birthday Danny. 

The customers are a little unpredictable about which slabs they will select.  Sometimes they will skip right past the ones that seem obvious and choose some real "characters".  I have not noticed the women selecting the slabs with flaws, uh em, character but there seems to be a correlation to the number of piercings and tattoos the customers have with the amount of "character" they want in their slabs.

The last several days, I have been adding clear epoxy to some bench sized slabs that need some rot stabilized.  It is time consuming but they look decent.  JMoore and I have discussed doing this to some of the characters that have not sold to add a little value to them or just sell the completed benches.

[YellowHammer]

Happy birthday Danny. 
I've got a few hickory logs and a big old dry beech I'll give you, for slabbin.   ;D

Caveman,
I have been thinking along the same lines, trying to make the uuugly slabs presentable, but haven't even tried it yet. 

What kind of epoxy are you using?  I was thinking I could do a very rough and spotty top coat to fill all the major holes, then run them though the planer to clean them up again.
I'm not sure if the epoxy will plane...what steps are you doing?

[scleigh]

I've had good luck lately building benches out of the ugly slabs, and logs, along with odd and end pieces. They seem to sale faster than the slab with defects and for more money.

[Den Socling]

Where does a slab like this stand? Good because it has an ugly bark pocket or bad because I didn't crack any wood around the pocket?  :D   :D   :D

 
As they say, it's a mixed up world!  :

[xlogger]

I few weeks ago I cut a cedar into slabs and it came out looking really bad. I lean it against the wall and was trying do decide on burning it or what. A few hours later someone came up and saw it and love it. Sold $80

[caveman]

What kind of epoxy are you using?  I was thinking I could do a very rough and spotty top coat to fill all the major holes, then run them though the planer to clean them up again.
I'm not sure if the epoxy will plane...what steps are you doing?

[/quote]
YH-  I have just been using some old two part table top epoxy Jmoore has had on the shelf for several years.  It has been taking several applications to fill the voids. It cracked when I applied it too thick.  It will plane although the last slab that I planed that had epoxy had some tear/chip out which was probably compounded by taking a heavy cut and my knives could use honing. 

We will probably try West Systems marine epoxy when we run out of the table top epoxy.  The other time consuming part of the table top epoxy that we have been using is having to use a heat gun to get the bubbles out for the first 20-30 minutes.  We have not been finishing the slabs with epoxy, just filling the voids.  The finish has consisted of three coats of shellac followed by a few coats of polyurethane.

[Savannahdan]

One of the things I have used for filling small voids is coffee grounds (dried out after use) and superglue.  I'll also use sawdust either from the same wood (oak, walnut, etc.) or a contrasting one, depending on the look I'm after.  Also, I keep my superglue in a spare refrigerator which keeps it quite a long time.

[Den Socling]

The epoxy sounds like a lot of work! & messy too.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

West also sells wood flour that you add to epoxy to make the epoxy colored and also make the epoxy go further.  The flour is called an extender.  It also makes the epoxy thicker so it fills better and stays in place also.  Never apply epoxy too thin in any case, as it will not generate  enough heat during curing when too thin and so the strength will be really low.

[Wmivey]

I sawed some sweet gum slabs a couple of years ago and just left them outside under tin. A lady that has bought wood from me asked about them. I told her what they were and said she could have a couple because I didn't think they'd have much interest. She sent me some photos of what she made and I said, "you know, next time I'll have to charge you for those slabs". It was really nice. I sawed some 4/4 stuff and the top two rows of the stack twisted but the rest looks ok. It hasn't been in the kiln yet. We'll see how it does soon.

[flatrock58]

I have a lot of sweetgum I need to cut.  This is one of the first one I cut.  They have been laying around for a few months.



 

[WDH]

If you could quartersaw some with that spalt, now that will be fine.