Air Seasoning Siberian Elm

[CR]

Last year about this time I took 5 hundred year old Siberian elms.  Beautiful lumber. About as hard as cherry.
It was stored in my garage the logs barked and sawn up into halves and quarters and slabs.
It seems to be all the way down to 10% MC (I did an oven MC test).

10%?? Less even depending on the thickness of the piece.  My test was done using one of  my thickest  pieces about 2' thick on all sides.

I have some oak that was harvested dead and  sat in my garage longer and as deep as 1" in it's still wetter than  Pogo's Okefenokee swamp.

How long does Elm normally take to season up to be good for furniture production?  The missus is hankering for a dining table.  She wants a monster she can sit 15 at.   She wants the chairs too.

[WDH]

I would be good to go at 10% in Georgia.

[rph816]

I would agree that 10% is good to go.  Plan on a little shrinkage, but good building practices would accomodate that anyways.  The table sounds fantastic... the chairs (15!) not so much.

Ryan

[CR]

I milled my lumber to 1 & 7/8" thick And have it  stacked & stickered. 
I hope to use it at that thickness.  I want a massive table.  I am comforted by the board width-to-thickness ratio of 8 - 1   (in the manual found here: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/ that  is in the section titled "Carbohydrates"
According to that manual I'm going to be well within,  as my boards don't exceed 5" in most cases and many are slimmer. 

Since I milled 'em flat, in a couple weeks I'll drop a straight edge on some of the boards and see if there's any out of flatness.  Maybe take a couple into the house to see if there's any change.

It's been a brutally humid spring here in western rural NJ.

[5quarter]

A suggestion for the chairs...Make one really nice arm chair for yourself and two benches that will seat 7 each along each side. will seat 15, be easier on you. Depending on your wifes sense of humor, you may need to build a roomy doghouse as well.  ;)