tupelo/black gum

[Rhodemont]

I hate this wood.  There is quite a bit of tupelo in my forest land.  It is beautiful in the fall  but some what invasive to my oaks and is really a pia to split.  We had some raw weather today with rain moving in so I choose to split firewood.  Most of it was ash but also some tupelo that had to come down when dropping the dead ash.  It splits kinda ok when really cold out but today at 40 deg it is so stringy and works the splitter hard and takes a lot longer.  Oak is my primary firewood and then maple.  Tupelo dries fast and burns ok but without nearly the BTU.  OH yeah, it is terrible for fence posts also.  Hate it. 

[Don P]

The worktable in my shop is black gum, imperfect but tough as nails  . I've used it for a few pegged hidden splines because of its interlocked grain. It is of limited use but it has its uses where that stringy, hard to split grain is what you need. 

[Southside]

I have "split" a fair amount of oversize firewood logs on my mill, then drop them onto the processor.  You could do the same with that black gum and avoid the hard splitting.