RED GUM - COMMERCIAL WOOD Red gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is one of the softer hardwoods of medium weight and strength. It has a good figure and a reddish heartwood that make it useful for many purposes. Red gum works easily and is fairly tough ; so the lower grades are in large demand for boxes and crates; while the figured wood, properly stained, gives perhaps the closest duplication of circassian walnut obtainable with any timber. Stained differently, red gum is also much used to give mahogany effects.
In addition to being the wood most largely used for slack barrel staves and heading, the statistical reports give the information embodied in Table 84, upon the other factory uses of red gum.
Table 84 Factory Uses of Red Gum Purpose Per Cent Boxes and Crates 50 Mill Work 15 Furniture and Fixtures 15 Vehicles 3 Pulleys and Conveyors 2 Sewing Machines 2 Refrigerators and Kitchen Cabinets 2 Agricultural Implements 1 Musical Instruments 1 Woodenware, Novelties, etc. 1 Picture Frames and Moldings 1 Other Uses 7 Total 100 Red gum and sap gum (the sapwood of red gum) enter to some extent into the manufacture of the following articles: Alfalfa grinder parts Chair frames (upholstered Ballot boxes furniture) Barrels (veneer) Chairs Baskets (fruit) Chairs (folding) Baskets (vegetable) Chairs (kitchen) Berry cups Chairs, official (lodge furBookcases (exterior work) nature) Bottom boards (piano) Chairs (parlor) Bottoms (heavy vehicle Cheese boxes seats) China closets (extension) Boxboards (dump carts) Cigar boxes Boxes Cigar wheels (wheel-ofBoxes (delivery wagons) chance) Boxes (veneer) , Coffee drums Boxes (wire bound) Columns (porch) Box shooks Commodes Brush blocks Consoles Cabinets . Cooperage stock (slack) Carvings Cooperage stock (tight) Caskets Corn graders Casing Cradles Cattle guards (railway cars) Crates (fruit and vegetable) Crating Music cabinets (exterior) Cultivator handles Neck yokes (cultivator) Cupboards (backing) Ornaments (furniture) Cupboards (kitchen) Packages (vegetable) Curtain poles Panels (light vehicle bodies) Desks (house) Panels (veneered) Desks (office) Parlor cabinets (inside work) Dining tables Pedestals Drawer bottoms Pens Dressers (exterior) Piano benches Egg cases Picture moldings Elevator cars Posts (stairworks) Eraser blocks (blackboard) Reed organs (interior parts) Fanning mills Reed organs (exterior) Faucets Refrigerators Fixtures (bank) Reshippers (boxes) Fixtures (soda fountains) Rims (guitars) Fixtures (store and office) Runners (sleighs and sleds) Flour mills (machinery Saddletrees parts) Sandboards (heavy vehicles) Folding beds Scale parts (platform scale) Frames (couches) Screen doors Frames (davenports) Seats (water closets) Frames (lounges) Seed-cleaner parts Furniture (exposed) Self-feeders (threshing Furniture (interior work) machines) Game traps Sewing machine parts Grain weighers Sideboards (built in) Guitar bodies Sideboards (exterior work) Handles Sideboards (interior work) Handrails (stairwork) Signs (advertising) Hay-baler parts Singletrees (cultivators) • Hobby horses Small gun stocks Interior finish Sofa frames (upholstered furIroning boards niture) Kitchen cabinets Spigots Kitchen cabinets (backing) Stepping (stairwork) Lawn swings Tables Legs (incubator) Tables (extension) Library cases Tables (kitchen) Lining (inside coat boxes) Tables (library) Litter carrier parts Tabourets Manure spreaders Tanks (water closets) Mop handles Thresher parts Moldings (piano) Tight cooperage stock Trimmings (piano) Wardrobes (exterior work) Trunks Wardrobes (interior work) Type cabinets Washboards (laundry) Vane slats (windmill) Washing machine parts Vehicle bottoms Weather strippings Vending machines Wheel slats (windmill) Vending machines (matches) Window screens Veneer cores Woodenware Veneer doors