Pat Barber wrote:

Surely you are not talking about old "common gum"
which grows damn near everywhere in my part of the
world and has a grain pattern so bad that people
will not even try to use it for firewood ???

You can't split gum with most explosives...

I didn't think anybody but the paper company used gum.

The paper company, and the guy who sold Dad a whole truckload of gum for
firewood one year. The load was about 70% red gum, 30% miscellaneous, with
some oak in there. Dad used to hand me a maul and say "Here, go get some
exercise."

I used to quarter a piece of oak in two whacks, then get a piece of gum to
humble myself a little. We had one huge red gum crotch in particular. I
forget how many times we hit that damn thing, but it was up there. Broke
two mauls on it, and got three or four wedges stuck in it. We finally got
it cut up somehow. Probably sawed it with a chainsaw or something, I
imagine.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
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