# Tuplegum(sp?) or Black Tupelo maybe?



## TheWoodWizard (Mar 17, 2020)

So about 20 years ago I rode to Cheniere Lake with my dad to help him harvest some Tuplegum wood. He always told me the BEST wood to carve with is the portion of Tuplegum trees that was underwater when it was standing. I remember it being shockingly light for the size blocks we were harvesting. He was carving duck decoys at the time.
Fast track to last week when I was doing some work for my parents to prepare their house to sell. What do I find in the attic? His Federal Reserve of the afore mentioned Tuplegum. He said I can have it! But even if I were an experienced carver, I couldn’t go through this much of this in a lifetime. I was thinking about trading or selling it. Should I post this in wood for trade and wood to buy? This post is to obtain more information about the wood, if the ID is correct(Tuplegum? Black Tupelo? Water Tupelo?), and how should I price it or how much is it worth? Here are pics...
Btw, the one piece with the dimensions on it looks cracked but it’s just a raised portion of the surface from chainsawing. This stuff has been drying in his attic for 20 years but there’s no bug damage on any of it. It looks like it is in great shape!

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 1 | Sincere 1


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## ripjack13 (Apr 19, 2020)

I moved this here....


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## phinds (Apr 19, 2020)

Jarred, there are half a dozen Nyssa species that go by various names involving tupelo, black gum, etc, so narrowing your wood down more than just Nyssa spp. may be impossible without the tree/bark/leaves/etc. One of the most common is Nyssa aquatica / water tupelo / swamp tupelo / black gum / swamp gum / water gum and a couple dozen more common names and it's possible that that's what you have but I don't know how you would tell.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/tupelo.htm

Among other things there:


> This is a hard wood, but reportedly liked by carvers although the different species vary considerably in hardness with water tupelo being noticeably softer than black tupelo which is sometimes used for beams and where strength counts. The favorite of carvers, really, is the lower regions of the water tupelo which are reportedly softer than the upper bole and softer still than black tupelo.

Reactions: Like 1


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## barry richardson (Apr 19, 2020)

TheWoodWizard said:


> So about 20 years ago I rode to Cheniere Lake with my dad to help him harvest some Tuplegum wood. He always told me the BEST wood to carve with is the portion of Tuplegum trees that was underwater when it was standing. I remember it being shockingly light for the size blocks we were harvesting. He was carving duck decoys at the time.
> Fast track to last week when I was doing some work for my parents to prepare their house to sell. What do I find in the attic? His Federal Reserve of the afore mentioned Tuplegum. He said I can have it! But even if I were an experienced carver, I couldn’t go through this much of this in a lifetime. I was thinking about trading or selling it. Should I post this in wood for trade and wood to buy? This post is to obtain more information about the wood, if the ID is correct(Tuplegum? Black Tupelo? Water Tupelo?), and how should I price it or how much is it worth? Here are pics...
> Btw, the one piece with the dimensions on it looks cracked but it’s just a raised portion of the surface from chainsawing. This stuff has been drying in his attic for 20 years but there’s no bug damage on any of it. It looks like it is in great shape!
> 
> ...


Id be interested in trading for a couple of pieces of that, ideally 3x6x12, four would fit in a Flat rate game box. Let me know if your interested and I will start a new thread in "Wood for Trade"

Reactions: Like 2


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