Sweet Gum Wood

Good morning y'all?just wondering if anyone knows if it's OK to smoke foods with wood from a sweet gum tree (we call it gum ball tree down here)? Since this particular tree lost its life when deciding to remove my house from its foundation, I now have tons of it and was just hoping I might save a dollar or two on smoking woods?any help will be appreciated.

Some of us here on the West Coast call the Sweet Gum Tree "Liquidamber" from it's scientific name Liquidamber styraciflua. The prickly balls that fall off are described as a fruit, but I don't know if that qualifies it as a barbecue wood. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can fill us in.

Regards,
Chris

Chris...without giving an explanatory reason, a respondent from the KCBS web site replied that sweet gum wood was not a wood to be used in BBQing; however, he did state that I could spray paint and use the bothersome, sticky little balls for decorations! I will continue to search for a more technical reason and when found will pass it along to the group...thanks again for your response...John

Using only the 'heart' of the wood (the brown center), I successfully smoked a delicious beef brisket this weekend with sweet gum wood. My culinary guinea pigs (I mean my loving family!), devoured the brisket with compliments. The smoke flavor was somewhat milder than oak and actually almost had a hickory taste. I followed y'all's advice and used only three pieces of gum wood over Kingsford charcoal. (Paul Kirk's brisket marinade probably had something to do with the results also!) Given the hickory like flavor, my next sweet gum wood adventure will be with a pork loin; I'll keep you guys posted.