Geographical Distribution
The wood most commonly marketed as Red Gum is scientifically known as Liquidambar styraciflua. L. styraciflua, is also referenced by a variety of common names including but not limited to: American sweetgum, sweetgum, sweet gum, hazel pine, American-storax, bilsted, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, and alligator-wood.
A. styraciflua is native to a wide range of the south-eastern United States from Connecticut southward to central Florida and eastern Texas. It is found as far west as Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma and north to southern Illinois. Oddly, it also grows in scattered locations in northwestern and central Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. However, L. styraciflua is most commonly thought of as a uniquely American wood and the commercial harvest of the species almost exclusively occurs in the United States.
A. styraciflua is widely planted outside of its native range as a fast growing, tall, and wide shade and ornamental tree. It is hardy and tolerant of climates throughout most of the mainland United States, excepting only the far northern reaches of the Midwestern states due to extreme winter temperatures as well as extreme southern Florida.
The term “Red Gum” is mostly restricted to the lumber trade and refers only to the heartwood of the L. styraciflua tree. Most commonly the tree itself is referred to by one of the other common names listed, and amongst those, “Sweetgum” is the most widely used.
For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to L. styraciflua as Red Gum from this point forward.
Red Gum Bowl Front
General Characteristics
The Red Gum tree produces lumber with wide sapwood that is whitish to light pink or tan in color. This wood is sometimes referred in the lumber trade as “sapgum” or “sweetgum.” The heartwood is gray to reddish brown, and this is the source of the wood most commonly referred to as “redgum.” Some examples of the heartwood feature darker black streaks, and such colored lumber is referred to as “figured redgum.” Some pieces, when quartersawn, will demonstrate a ribbon-like or striped appearance.
The grain of the Red Gum tends to be interlocked. The wood demonstrates a very fine and uniform texture. Red Gum also achieves a nice natural luster, and because of this characteristic, some have named the wood “satin walnut.”
The endgrain of the Red Gum is diffuse and porous with small pores in no specific arrangement.
The heartwood of the Red Gum is considered to be moderately to non-durable to decay while the sapwood is more highly perishable. Red Gum heartwood and sapwood are both susceptible to insect attack.
Working Characteristics
Red Gum is most often considered easy to work, especially given its relative softness and low density. However, as experienced readers will expect, the interlocked grain can lead to tear out problems, especially during surfacing operations. The most significant problem when working with Red Gum is its well-known tendency to warp excessively as it dries, making the wood very unstable. Red Gum wood that is turned while green must be left with quite thick walls to allow for the movement and the necessary corrections once the wood is completely dry. Even when dried, the Red Gum wood can still distort and move.
However, once the tendency to distort has been reckoned with, either by drying the timber before use, or by correcting the distortions once the green-turned wood has dried, Red Gum should turn, glue, stain, and finish well. Also, Red Gum responds moderately well to steam bending.
Red Gum is not reported to display any characteristic odor when being worked.
Pricing
The sapwood of the tree that produces Red Gum heartwood is usually readily available in its native areas. However, only the largest and most mature of trees will have heartwood, the part considered to be Red Gum, of adequate size for much timber or turning uses. This will limit the supply to some extent, and while the sapwood is available fairly cheaply, the heartwood considered to be Red Gum will cost more, especially if there is any figure visible. Red Gum should be priced mid-range for a domestic hardwood. Quarter-sawn pieces will also command a premium price compared to regular lumber.
I always recommend both West Penn Hardwoods and Bell Forest Products as excellent sources of both domestic and exotic hardwoods. I have had multiple dealings with both vendors and have always been very satisfied. In addition, I am pleased to also recommend both NC Wood and Got Wood as excellent sources of domestic hardwoods.
At this time, and for the foreseeable future, only Got Wood of the listed vendors is offering Red Gum in in any form, and they only sell turning stock. While I dislike using the service, Red Gum is likely to be available through various sellers in the Southeast on Ebay. Because the tree that yields Red Gum is widely planted throughout the United States as a shade tree, it is entirely possible that local tree services may, on occasion, have freshly cut wood that they would sell or even give away. These sources of found and free wood should never be disregarded, especially not when seeking wood from trees that are commonly planted outside their native areas as ornamental specimens.
Got Wood is selling turning rounds of Red Gum, ranging in size from 4”x2” to a massive 12”x5” for prices ranging from a little over $2 to $55. They are also offering some spindle sizes as well as the more numerous bowl blank sizes. The Red Gum they are selling will ship green, although fully waxed. When turning this wood, its tendency to distort wildly must be kept in mind to ensure that you will end up with something usable in the end.
Personally, I allowed my blank to dry completely, re-cut it back to round, and then had to perform significant plane operations to achieve something remotely flat. This will result in the loss of considerable amounts of material. My originally 10”x3” piece was reduced to 8.5”x2” due to distortion losses. These losses may be lessened if the wood is turned while green, with very thick walls, and then restored to round and shaped once dried. If turned green though, I cannot overemphasize the need for very thick walls to allow sufficient material for finish turning. This wood will, without question, distort WILDLY.
While the dealer listed above is a personal favorite, Red Gum should be obtainable from other dealers in domestic hardwoods, probably including one near you. If you don’t have a favorite supplier that you have worked with extensively in the past, by all means shop around for the best prices and the best selection to meet your particular wood working needs.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising exotic wood dealers. In your search for Red Gum, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer near their home in person to hand pick nice pieces at a comfortable price.
Uses
Red Gum finds use in several applications, including but not necessarily limited to: veneer, plywood, furniture (especially speaker/acoustic cabinets), interior trim, boxes/crates, and turned objects. In the past, Red Gum was also used fairly extensively for fine cabinet making, doors, millwork, strips and moldings, rail ties, and the interiors of passenger railway cars. Red Gum, once stained the appropriate color, has been used widely as a substitute for walnut or ebony. Red Gum was once exported extensively to Europe under the name “satin walnut.”
In addition to the wood, the tree that produces Red Gum heartwood also produces a resin, which accounts for the word “gum” in the common names. This resin was once believed to have medicinal properties and was incorporated into patent medicines sold widely in the United States. The gum was also chewed. A similar tree in the same genus produces a resin known as styrax that is still used to make chewing gum and also as an ingredient for the tobacco, cosmetics, and perfume industries. The styrax resin is also used medicinally to treat coughs, wounds, and dysentery. Similar uses for the resin from the Red Gum specifically have declined in the United States.
Sustainability
Red Gum is not listed with the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices and is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species of least concern. There are no restrictions on its harvest, use or sale.
It realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations. This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store. Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.
Health Hazards
Although severe reactions are uncommon, Red Gum has been reported to cause skin irritation in some people. In addition, the standard risks posed by prolonged and repeated exposure to dust from any wood species must be considered. Appropriate protective equipment is therefore recommended, as always, when working with this, or any other, wood, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.
Complete information about health hazards associated with a wide variety of hardwoods is available from The Wood Database. Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.
Fortunately, I have experienced no negative side effects when working with Red Gum.
My Personal Experiences
What I first immediately noticed about the Red Gum rounded turning blank that I was working with was that it was no longer remotely round or flat. The wood had warped extensively, more so than I have ever seen in any other wood by far. Although the wood was waxed when cut and green, as it warped, it cracked the wax and most of it fell off. The round flattened, as if was stretched at the end grain areas. In addition, it bowed upward such that one surface presented as overtly convex and the opposite side equally concave. As a side note, if you stack your turning blanks on top of each other, this type of warping, especially with Red Gum, could cause a falling wood catastrophe. Bear that in mind when storing green Red Gum.
Red Gum Bowl Rear
Once I had returned the piece to something resembling round, first by re-cutting it to round on the band-saw, and then by using the lathe to plane the faces, I was able to start to work towards making something bowl-like with it. It was notably soft and easy to cut, especially in comparison to the much harder and denser tropical hardwoods I had been dealing with immediately prior. However, despite the softness, the Red Gum cut very smoothly except on the end grain areas, but with repeated feather-light cuts, I was able to achieve a quite nice cut finish.
As would be expected, the Red Gum sanded easily, as most soft woods do. But, unlike many softer woods that cut and sand somewhat fuzzy, the Red Gum produced a very nice texture with sanding. I applied a shellac finish which allowed the reddish coloration and figure to shine through. The piece of Red Gum I worked with reminded me greatly, in coloration and figure, of Ambrosia Maple. I enjoy Ambrosia Maple greatly and was pleased with this similar appearance in the Red Gum.
Overall, I am not unhappy with the experience of working with Red Gum but I confess that I am hesitant to purchase it again because of the severity of the distortion that is inevitably going to occur. I am not confident that if I turned the wood green that I would ever be able to mount it again, much less achieve a reasonable shape. When allowed to dry before turning, there is so much material lost due to the excessive warping that it seems almost wasteful, as well as frustrating to counter the excessive warping during the initial turning stages. I believe that I will choose to use woods with less known movement in the future, especially as the coloration and figure of Red Gum is found in other woods that are more stable. It was a fun experiment and I always like working with a new wood, but in this rare case, this first use may prove to be the last.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!