How to Identify Sweetgum Wood (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Wide sapwood whitish to light pink or tan; heartwood gray to reddish brown (marketed separately as 'sapgum' and 'redgum'). Grain is interlocked, with a very fine, uniform texture and natural luster, giving rise to the nickname 'satin walnut'. End grain: Diffuse porous; small pores in no specific arrangement, very numerous, exclusively solitary and/or in radial multiples of 2-3; tyloses common; growth rings indistinct; rays not visible without a lens; parenchyma not visible with a hand lens.

Janka hardness 850 lbf (side hardness: the force needed to embed a 0.444-inch steel ball to half its diameter). Specific gravity 0.52 at 12% moisture content, so a cubic foot weighs roughly 32 lb. Weight in the hand is one of the quickest checks: compare a piece of known size against a board you already know.

Sweetgum's reddish-brown heartwood and ribbon-stripe figure have earned it the trade name 'satin walnut,' but sweetgum is diffuse porous with a very fine uniform texture versus walnut's semi-ring-porous structure and coarser medium texture, and is notably softer (850 lbf vs 1,010 lbf). The Black Walnut page has its own details.

No characteristic odor; interlocked grain produces a ribbon-stripe figure on quartersawn surfaces.

Veneer, plywood, furniture (speaker/acoustic cabinets), interior trim, boxes/crates, and turned objects.

Generally easy to work, though planing can cause tearout due to interlocked grain; known to warp and distort badly during initial drying; turns, glues, stains, and finishes well; reported to cause skin irritation.

Photograph a freshly cut or sanded face in daylight, not a finished or stained surface, since stain hides color and finish flattens grain. Add a close-up of the end grain: cut a clean end, wet it or sand it to 220, and shoot from straight on; pore pattern and rays are the most reliable marks. Put a ruler in frame. The app suggests the likely species; confirm with the end grain and weight.