Exotic Wood gum

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GUM

Liquidambar styraciflua

NOTE: the name "gum" is not actually correct, but the "two" woods represented here are the sapwood (sweet gum) and heartwood (red gum) of the same tree, and my automated HTML processing program could only combine the two if I put them all under the name "gum". See the Fact Sheet for further discussion of the "gum" name (it's a mess!)

my samples:

sweet gum plank and end grain. This is a piece from a wood sample set I bought and it was labled "sap gum", which is consistent with the various ways that the gum name is used. It seems representative based on what I've read, in that it has the fairly smooth creamy appearance generally ascribed to sweet gum (aka sap gum).

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

sweet gum sample plank and end grain --- I'm not really sure whether this is heartwood (red gum) or sapwood (sweet gum), but based on the density shown in the end grain (particularly the closeup directly below) I lean towards believing that it's heartwood. Color is quite accurate.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a plank, generously contributed to the site by John Saxon of The Cedar Store, of what is generally called "figured red gum". It is (mostly, except for the edges) the heartwood of the sweet gum tree, which makes it "red gum" and when it has those spiky colored areas, it is called "figured".

a closeup of the plank directly above

red gum sample plank and end grain cut from the larger piece shown above

end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above

figured red gum pics submitted by John Saxon of The Cedar Store --- this plank is from the same batch as the one that produced the sample directly above but these pics were taken in bright daylight which is probably why the sapwood shows up lighter here and the red is less pronounced in his pics.

two planks and a closeup --- this and the next three sets below were all from the same vendor, same lot, and thus presumably, same tree. I was very disappointed in the washed-out color of these pieces. To see why, look directly below:

the pic posted on ebay of these planks. The vendor DID state that this pic had the wood moistened with mineral spirits, but I do not believe that could account for the vibrant red in this pic (check out the enlargement which really shows it strongly), which is totally missing from the wood, as you can see in all of my pics which are accurate in color.

two planks and a closeup

two planks and a closeup showing some black-line spalting

two planks and a closeup

plank and end grain --- this was cut from one of the larger planks above

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

plank and end grain --- this was cut from one of the larger planks above

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

red gum veneer. Note that red gum with this degree of color variety is sometimes sold as "figured" red gum.

red gum veneer

red gum veneer and a closeup

red gum veneer

more figured red gum veneer; two long sheets and a couple of closeups of same. The very rich color is quite accurate --- these are beautiful sheets

red gum veneer from another lot --- colors are accurate

spalted sweet gum veneer --- I've never seen spalted gum veneer offered commercially; I got this in a mixed box of veneer cutoffs from a jewlery box maker who makes some of his own veneer in his shop from odd pieces. Spalted gum lumber is available on rare occasions (in small pieces).

web pics

log section showing very nicely the distinct color variation between sapwood and heartwood, the high width of the sapwood, and the common jagged separation between sapwood and heartwood that makes for some very interesting streaking effects in flat cut planks that pass through that area.

all of these veneer sheets were listed as sweet gum veneer but many of them appear to be heartwood and should be called red gum.

these were all listed as red gum planks but some of them appear to be sweet gum

a set of red gum planks and closeup (listed as sweet gum). The first pic is raw wood and the rest are moistened with mineral spirits --- I ended up buying this set and was very disappointed in the actual color, which is plain gray with no hint of red. See this up above in the "my samples" section. Even the raw shot here shows a red tint, making it believable that the wood would show a nice red when finished, whereas the actual wood is gray with no hint of red. The vendor was honest after the fact, however, and we worked out a satisfactory deal after the original sale.

this plank was listed as red gum, but I believe that it is actually an unrelated wood more commonly called "river red gum" from Australia --- that wood has its own page on this site.

a set of planks, all from the same vendor and listed as red gum, although I find the color to be very unlikely and they look much more like sweet gum than red gum (actually, they don't look much like either one)

listed as figured red gum

red gum veneer

figured red gum veneer

red gum crotch veneer --- this may well be river red gum, a completely unrelated eucalyptus species.

red gum crotch veneer quartermatched

these were listed as figured sweetgum, but they are red gum. This is just an example of the name confusion in the "gum" woods. The first is a plank and the next two are veneer.