sour gum

[hackberry jake]

My neighbor had a long dead sweet sour gum that was dangerously close to his house. He asked me to drop it for him. I dropped it and noticed the wood had a funny purple color. He gave me the butt log and here is what I found.


 

[Ocklawahaboy]

Pretty color.  What did you cut out of that?

[Larry]

At the bottom of the picture looks almost like ambrosia.  In the center I see a little orange which indicates to me the first stage of rot and that tracks with the spalt I see in the sapwood.

Hard to tell from a picture...and iffen I'm wrong I can always blame it on the picture. :D

[ellmoe]

   That is called red gum. There is a picture on the forum of a red gum bench posted by Tom. The white portion is called "sap gum" and the heart, when present, is "red gum", sometimes sold as a faux European walnut. I have a finished red gum board in a display of various species of wood we saw. Whenever a customer asks, "what kind of wood is that!", I don't even look anymore, I just say red gum. It  definitely has a striking appearance. It also dies to look like fried bacon! (A perfect description borrowed from some unknown forum member.
Mark

[hackberry jake]

I milled this log into 1/2" paneling. Looks more like kinlin to me.


 

  

[Magicman]

   Looks like it is kin to some other "gummery" that I know.   :D

[isawlogs]

 I've some elm that ressembles that  : 

[Planman1954]

I cut a lot of 1/2" thick by 12" wide Southern yellow Pine. It will cup if put in sunlight. I try to sticker it pronto in my kiln with spacers no more the 24" oc. After they dry, they seem to hold their shape fairly well. There will be some that resemble yours though! After close nailing with common type nails with a head, I've not had too much of a problem after installation.

[WDH]

That sweetgum is showing its spiral grain dark side  .  If you don't quartersaw it, it can be impossible to use except as kinlin.  The first flat sawn boards off the cant on all faces usually twist and warp very badly, so it is best to slab a little heavy.  Pretty, but pretty can be devilish, too, but I will not delve too deeply into that  .

[YellowHammer]

I milled this log into 1/2" paneling. Looks more like kinlin to me.

The second picture of the wavy wood made me hungry, reminded me of fried pork skins. :D
YH

[WDH]

I bet that they taste better than they look  . 

[mesquite buckeye]

I've some elm that ressembles that  :

Me too. :(

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Red and sap gum are known to have almost uncontrollable warping tendency in drying.  The literature is full of things that have been tried to stop the warp, but in over 100 years, nothing has worked well.  It warps worse than syp and elm.

[hackberry jake]

Red and sap gum are known to have almost uncontrollable warping tendency in drying.  The literature is full of things that have been tried to stop the warp, but in over 100 years, nothing has worked well.  It warps worse than syp and elm.

did you mean syc and elm? Syp is southern yellow pine right?

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Syp (southern yellow pine) especially from small logs likes to warp due to juvenile wood, compression wood and spiral grain.  I think it is the worst softwood. 

Gum is the worst hardwood with American elm being second in common commercial hardwoods native the North America.

This is not an official rating, but is my experience.  Do you think sycamore should be near the top of the list too?

[NMFP]

At the school I teach at, we just sawed a 30" mulberry. Pretty yellow wood but FULL of tension.  The cant when we were done was tapered about 3" end to end and had almost a 45 degree twist .

Very nice wood but not the best for dimensional stability. 

Seems as we always try to saw things that really should be left to the wood stove.

[Okrafarmer]

It's been my experience that:

1. Within any species, there are some logs with a lot of tension and some without
2. Some species are more inclined to tension than others
3. The smaller the log, or the crookeder the log, the more trouble you will have with it.
4. quartersawing large logs helps to keep things less warped
5. When a big old piece of wood decides it's going to twist, there's not a lot you can do.

My worst species for warping and twisting are:

1. Persimmon
2. Cherry
3. Sycamore (or less)
4. Sweetgum
5. I have never tried elm.
6. Tulip poplar
7. SYP (especially Virginia Pine)
8. Red Maple\

But it really depends on the quality of the log in the first place.

I've never had much trouble with black gum. It usually mills out well and dries well.

[hackberry jake]

Syp (southern yellow pine) especially from small logs likes to warp due to juvenile wood, compression wood and spiral grain.  I think it is the worst softwood. 

Gum is the worst hardwood with American elm being second in common commercial hardwoods native the North America.

This is not an official rating, but is my experience.  Do you think sycamore should be near the top of the list too?

I have had some syp drying issues, but I thought it had a pretty good name for itself overall. its good to know I'm not the only one. I have had some sycamore moving but not too awefully bad. Where is hackberry rated on your list?

[Magicman]

You may occasionally have an odd SYP log that gives you grief, but not enough to be concerned about.

We had only one log that had stress issues on the entire dablack Goodwill Sawing project.

[hackberry jake]

Stress when cutting and warpage are two different animals. The sweet gum had zero stress in it when I was cutting it on the mill. Some people just "saws em and leaves em" and dont have to worry about drying  ;D

[JB Griffin]

Ain't Gum fun Jake.  :D

[hackberry jake]

Tons...

[backwoods sawyer]

Some people just "saws em and leaves em" and dont have to worry about drying  ;D

But some sure don't cut them 1/2" thick and expect it to dry flat with out adding weight to the stack ;D
If you want veneer start with a steam tunnel to soften the log, chuck it up in the lathe and peal it thin, clip out the bad spots, patch knots, it is basicly that simple but sawing 1/2" well it does what yours did. 

[WDH]

My worst miscreants have been sweetgum, hackberry, flatsawn sycamore, and persimmon.  Keeping the juvenile wood in the center of wide boards helps a great deal in minimizing drying problems in SYP. 

[mesquite buckeye]

Don't forget to add in elm, hickory/pecan ( ) and the dreaded red gum eucalyptus. ;D