elm lumber

[sawyer2015]

Elm makes good lumber right? from what I have read it does. Actually my main question is how does it cut?

[beenthere]

All elm doesn't cut the same.  There are different species of elm, and within each there are (or can be) different growth scenarios that will affect sawing, as well as drying.

But elm has been a good furniture wood for a long time (until the Dutch elm disease). One place elm is noticeable is in Church pews.

[Dave Shepard]

I cut a couple of elm logs last year. It cut very well. Not sure which elm it was, I thought it was an ash in a snow storm. :D

[sawyer2015]

I thought it was ash for a few. Then thought it was sweet gum tree. It looks close to the gum but the bark is lighter and the heart of the log is a little darker. I posted pictures on the tree i.d. forum section. I still am not sure what it is but leaning toward elm. Hoping its elm. I grabbed two ten ft. sections of the tree, but can get a lot more of it if I want it. The tree base is probably three ft. I am gonna head over there when the rain subsides and find the leaves that grew from her. That will probably solve the mystery.

[mesquite buckeye]

It does have a tendency to move around, especially open grown trees or ones with figure. :-\

Pretty though. ;D

[Chuck White]

I sawed one early last Summer, it was fresh-cut, only on the ground maybe 10 minutes and it was on the mill being sawed.

It wasn't very big, 12 ft. log, 14 in. on the small end, I got two 2x10's, one 5/4x8 and two 1x8's.

It didn't saw any different than Hemlock, but that could have been because it was fresh-cut.

[beenthere]

Ash from elm can be distinguished by making a clean knife cut on the end grain. The elm will have the wavy parenchyma cells, the ash will not.

Some pics here...
ash vs elm wood pics wavy parenchyma

[Ron Wenrich]

I sawed elm on rare occasion.  It was generally thrown in with the oak, and we made ties and pallet lumber from them.  We never had enough to market the lumber.  I liked the way it sawed.  Few problems and no surprises.  I also liked the way elm looked. 

At Penn State, they have one of the largest American elm forests east of the Mississippi.  Here's an idea at how large the trees are:


The university did have some problems with the Dutch elm disease, but they were able to survive that outbreak.  But, now it has the yellows.  And they aren't doing well. 

The way the university used to handle diseased logs were to bury them.  I know a guy that works for the university, and that's how I found out.  But, they ended up marketing them.  They now cut the logs into lumber and kiln dry it.  Then they get it made into high end furniture.  They also make picture frames for the alumni to put their diplomas in. 

So, don't discount elm as a decent wood. 

[Dave Shepard]

Ash from elm can be distinguished by making a clean knife cut on the end grain. The elm will have the wavy parenchyma cells, the ash will not.

Some pics here...
ash vs elm wood pics wavy parenchyma

That doesn't work when the tree is still standing and covered in snow.

[sawyer2015]

Here are some pics of the mystery

[mesquite buckeye]

Looks like mighty clean splitting for elm. How hard did it split?

[sawyer2015]

split easy....two swats with a maul

[Magicman]

My Elm doesn't split with two swats.   

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

My Elm doesn't split with two swats.   

Mine either but it will with a 7° blade.  ;D

[LeeB]

The bark looks somewhat like cedar elm, which does grow in Texas.

[YellowHammer]

Around here, elm is so tough that its a favorite wood for bulldozer trailer decking because it doesn't like to split.  It's pretty stuff with a bird feather type grain pattern.  This is a picture of some of my red elm lumber.  Tough, mean wood, likes to move a lot.

[sawyer2015]

Yeah that is some pretty wood for sure. Here is a picture of the 2 leaves I found in the vicinity of the tree. The smaller leaf is White Oak. What is the larger 

 

keep in mind the bigger leaf is about the size of an average mans hand

[bandmiller2]

As the Hammer says elm is tough, resists impact, cracking, and is what used to be used on pickup beds. Trailer and truck decking is one of the better uses. It cuts fine its just the splitting thats tough. Frank C.

[gfadvm]

My elm looks just like yellowhammer's pic. Pretty but not very friendly to dry (cups/warps/twists) even with closely placed stickers and concrete blocks on top of the stack.

[trapper]

 I used it for runners on portable deer blinds and sides of raised garden beds.  I also sawed the elm used in the seats of the original astrodome.

[LeeB]

I recon I must have sat in one of those seats. We went to the first game ever played there.

[ozarkgem]

elm around here will rot pretty quick if left outside. Never had anyone use it on trailer floors or anything outside.

[Chuck White]

Yeah that is some pretty wood for sure. Here is a picture of the 2 leaves I found in the vicinity of the tree. The smaller leaf is White Oak. What is the larger 

 

keep in mind the bigger leaf is about the size of an average mans hand

The larger leaf looks like it could be a Red Oak.

[WDH]

The buds and the leaf do not match.  If the twig is from the tree, it is not an oak.  Buds look like basswood to me.  If it is basswood, the bark is a little atypical for what I see normally.  So, here is a test.  Look at the bud on the twig.  In basswood, the bud does not sit centered on top of the leaf scar like most buds do.  They sit off to one side, called an inequilateral bud.  It is easy to see. 

So, how does your bud sit?

[Magicman]

 

 
This is how my bud sits....and sits......and sits.  Sorta inequilateral I would say.  ;D

[roger 4400]

The log that is split looks like box elder ( acer negundo) to me. Over here elm will never split that nice . The leaves are from an oak  but yours are not like ours.

[Baron]

Neither are White Oak.

[Baron]

Magician that is how my buds sit too.

[WDH]

The buds in the twig pic are alternate.  Box elder is opposite branched, not alternate, so it cannot be box elder. 

MM

I see how he is sitting on his bud.  He has made a skill out of it.     

[Buffer]

just to put my 2 cents in, I've had two neighbors give me the wood from downed elm trees. I was told one was an American Elm, I had to rent a splitter for it and just about blew it up. The other a Siberian Elm, it split easy with my axe.

[mart]

My grand dad always liked elm for horse stalls. He said it was easier on their legs than concrete. He claimed it had some natural springiness to it that helped to keep the horse's legs from laming up. Don't know if this is true or not but he was pretty adamant that his horse stalled be floored with elm.

[crowhill]

Mart, my grandfather did and said the same to the point I think he believed you were doing a horse injustice if you put anything other than elm in the stall. That was up here in Vermont.

[mart]

crowhill,

This was in the North Country of New York State. Very similar country to yours. Both my grandfathers used draft horses much of their lives. My paternal grandfather was adamant about the elm. I never heard my maternal grandfather say but I'm sure he would have wanted the same. He ran a road grader with his team of white Belgians and dairy farmed. They both dairy farmed all their lives and depended on their horses being sound and ready. It wasn't until the last couple of decades of their lives that they went to tractors. My mom's dad always seemed extremely saddened not to be farming with horses. He often logged with his horses, mostly firewood. He was fond of telling the story of cutting firewood logs by himself in the winter. He'd just throw the reins up over their backs and send the horses up the trail to the farm yard with some logs. Grandma would unhook the logs and turn the horses around and send them back to Grandpa. He said they would do that all day long and never wander from the trail. Try that with a log skidder.

[Ron Wenrich]

My dad used to tell me the same about firewood, but they used mules.  They said every so often they had to go look for the mule, as the mule decided it was break time.

Horses went out of style for many farmers after WWII.  We had an aggressive tractor salesman in the area.  There was no need to have the cash, as he would gladly allow them to use their farm for collateral.  When the farmers couldn't pay, he simply took their farm.  In later life, he said it was a business practice that he regretted.   

[SwampDonkey]

Elm was also used here on horse stalls. A horse treads, and elm was most resistant to wear compared to using spruce or other native wood up this way. I have had elm sawed, I had  20" incher, clear all the way up the log. And it wasn't the but log, I had no way to handle a 36" hardwood. :D Just a come-along winch and pick-up bed. Twisty stuff when dried. It was open grown.

The twig symmetry and bark looks like elm, but that split way too easy for a native elm. Elm buds on the tips cant a little because they are not really a terminal bud, the tip withers away and it's actually a lateral bud. A lot of them buds in the original post are possibly flower buds, more round and plump.





They've kind of become weeds, growing in road corridors near the river valley. They get to be 8" and have seed, then the dutch elm takes them out.

[reubenT]

sometimes tree names get applied a but different in different places.  But to my best knowledge red elm and slippery elm are the same tree.  The inner bark is edible and medicinal,  the tree grows to good size,  splits fairly easily.    We also have american elm.   hydraulic splitter has to work it's way all the way through.   And it's dieing.  I'm cutting dry dead ones for firewood.     I've heard it is a preferred wood for the lath under metal roofing because it hangs onto nails.    And It's also the preferred wood for wagon hubs,  because it's tough and yet not too hard,  the wood will give a bit as the hickory spokes are driven in and hold good without loosening.    (I know,  wood wheel wagon building is almost a lost art.  One of those essential skills of the past that got completely replaced by steel and rubber,  only retained by a few for pleasure use) 

[sawyer2015]

here is a close up and a pic of the milled lumber

  

 

[sawyer2015]

I don't think basswood grows in east texas

[sawyer2015]

By the way. Buds cup is empty.

[WDH]

Not basswood. 

[Baron]

It appears to be red elm or slippery elm. What is that , uhlmus rubra, or something close.