furniture making help needed

jdt, where bouts you located? as for the hickory, it will stay where i put it. its gonna get samiched between red oak and whatever this other tree i slabbed out. its a pretty red color when wet, but as it sun dried, it turned more golden, but when i put water on it to simulate a stain, it turns a nice pinkish/red. i wish i could find more of it, but without knowing what it is, its hard to know exactly what it will do for making furniture, but I'm gonna give it a try. i was thinking of contacting the forestry service here in central texas and send them a sample of the wood and peel of bark. only bad side to the bark is though, most of it was smoothed out from being dragged around by the construction company expanding I35 near waco.
JDT, also, do you know a cheap method for drying slabs of wood? a guy in waco has a kiln, but he wants $.50c per board foot (144sq inches), so using him aint really in my pocket book unless i can work out a deal with him for red oak, something he doesn't have in stock, mostly bc, it doesn't grow in our area.
what do you know bout sweetgum for furniture? don't have any, didn't plan on felling any either unless it wood be a wood that doesn't warp or split bad. only thing we ever used gum for in east tx was fire wood.