Is Tupelo Gum wood worth the effort for a bowl/platter project?
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Goor or Bad for a Project?
- Thread starter cwearing
- Start date
Max Taylor
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I dont know, I live in Ft. Worth Tx. a long way from Mississippi
Tupelo gum tree
Hi Cwearing,
Please understand I have never turned Tupelo gum tree but let me fingers do the walking on the internet. It appears it is in the Dogwood family of trees. That's a good family to be in as I have seen countless beautifully turned objects out of dogwood. I would go ahead and try it. What's the worst that could happen? You have a piece of firewood and some excess shavings on the floor. Good luck.🙂
Hi Cwearing,
Please understand I have never turned Tupelo gum tree but let me fingers do the walking on the internet. It appears it is in the Dogwood family of trees. That's a good family to be in as I have seen countless beautifully turned objects out of dogwood. I would go ahead and try it. What's the worst that could happen? You have a piece of firewood and some excess shavings on the floor. Good luck.🙂
I don't let ignorance slow me down, either. Our friend Google ["tupelo gum" "sweet gum"] found this for comparison: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/300-399/nb366.htm
I say go for it. I've turned Sweet Gum quite successfully, as well as Bald Cypress. Both very nice. Dogwood is very prone to cracking, so seal the ends of whatever you have as soon as possible, or work between the cracks.
Joe
I say go for it. I've turned Sweet Gum quite successfully, as well as Bald Cypress. Both very nice. Dogwood is very prone to cracking, so seal the ends of whatever you have as soon as possible, or work between the cracks.
Joe
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Sweet Gum and Black Gum are in different families.
I have heard that Black Gum (Tupelo) is great. We don't have any growing here on the farm and I have never had the opportunity to try it.
I have heard that Black Gum (Tupelo) is great. We don't have any growing here on the farm and I have never had the opportunity to try it.
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Like the lady said, don't try to tie the two (of many) "gums" together. Sweetgum http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/factsheets/sweetgum.pdf is one of the dirtiest domestic trees around if it grows in your yard, nicest-looking if you're driving past. Of course you won't have to clean up the mess from those things you're crushing ....
Black gum or Tupelo is a different critter entirely. http://ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-298-W.pdf Medium to light in weight for a hardwood, with interlocked grain, it doesn't machine well, though I would suspect, as with true poplar, that the market will see more of it now that we sell lumber sanded. As you can see, it's a secondary furniture wood, but makes great generic "wood" for crates, pallets and boxes. Pretty enough in a couple of its morphs to rate special classification in the lumber industry.
Black gum or Tupelo is a different critter entirely. http://ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-298-W.pdf Medium to light in weight for a hardwood, with interlocked grain, it doesn't machine well, though I would suspect, as with true poplar, that the market will see more of it now that we sell lumber sanded. As you can see, it's a secondary furniture wood, but makes great generic "wood" for crates, pallets and boxes. Pretty enough in a couple of its morphs to rate special classification in the lumber industry.
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You might have some tearout on end grain, but because it has interlocking grain, it probably is less likely to crack than some other wood. It is not known for great figure, but what the heck ... turn some green and see if you like it.
I turned a couple of blanks of it. It turned pretty nice. You do need sharp tools for the final cuts. If it is free turn it.