Red elm

[Bruno of NH]

I have an opportunity to buy some red elm logs 
Anyone sawn some before? 
The goog the bad ?

[doc henderson]

I saw elm all the time.  a very common and underappreciated wood here.  It is so common and was planted in yards, and almost every farm driveway is lined on one side with elm.  As Danny @WDH would talk about, they have epicormic growth center.  this is where a 8-inch-long, tiny limb with a few leaves comes out of the lower large base log.  It results in small dark brown, black noses in the wood that is interesting like bird's eye pattern. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicormic_shoot

[doc henderson]

I think our elm is American red elm.  It is easy to saw.  cut fresh it has an off smell and is affectionately called "pis elm".  had a friend's neighbor having one taken down and he wanted me to mill it so he could make a table.  he and his wife almost bought a table on the east coast for thousands.  they were told it was a "domestic exotic hardwood".  they kept asking and found it was elm.  his tree was a 4-foot diameter log, and his wife told him NO.


recent elm logs from my buddy Dallas


elm board






shoe rack I made custom to fit my wife's shoes in an underused area in our closet.  easy to machine.  shelf space is short to fit shoes and so I used a brush on wipe off oil finish.

4-foot diameter 4-inch-thick target used for years kept intermittently wet.  the tree with three branches to the right or the target in the background is elm.

[mike dee]

If it's siberian elm which looks similar, the wood is hard and dulls cutting blades super fast. Doesn't burn very well.

Siberian elm is considered an invasive species

[Don P]

I know American elm and red elm as 2 different species, Ulmus Rubra, red elm, is a beautiful wood, we don't have many and I've only cut a few, losses during drying were high but I'd like to have more, very handsome wood IMO.

[beenthere]

Doesn't burn very well.

No problem burning elm. May be a bit slower (longer) to dry, but I like elm for a fire as it will provide good heat and have long-lasting embers. Any wood will burn fine if seasoned.
Splitting elm varies with species and growing conditions. If using an hydraulic splitter no problem, but if using a splitting maul, then there indeed can be more energy spent. 

[doc henderson]

I burn lots of elm.   I was told it would make lots of ash.  not really much different if fully burned IMO.  I split it with the hydraulic log splitter.  with a maul might be a good challenge for a young guy.  Like my dad let me struggle a while with a finish nail trying to make an airplane in the back yard, from a stick of oak baseboard trim It had a nice wing profile.  I was 4 or 5.  my dad was proud, but eventually drilled a pilot hole for me.  taught me to work both smarter and harder!  gone about 16years now.

[jpassardi]

Doc, That's how I feel about sugar maple and black birch: hydraulic splitter only.
Then again, I don't split anything with a maul anymore.

[moodnacreek]

To me elm red or gray is the most beautiful Appalachian hardwood. But a sawmill man may think different. It can warp and buckle itself in a full circle. I should mention twist and split and bow, all of it. The white sap can stain and our beloved powder post beetles enjoy it. Cut fresh no less than 5-4" thick and stick 12" o.c. Cut much more than you want.

[Bruno of NH]

The logs all average 26" or larger on the small end

[farmfromkansas]

I sawed up a stack of red elm. put it inside a steel grainery, shut the door, and the whole batch got contaminated with PPB. Unless you put it in a kiln, needs to be treated with solubor.

[Kindlinmaker]

Fair amount in hedge rows around me.  I second everything already said.  A very attractive wood and not bad to work with in the shop.  My experience has always been it tends to take off a bit during drying like soft maple but nothing like cherry.  I find treating it like locust with an extra season of drying works best for burning.  And I wouldn't even think about splitting it by hand.

[thecfarm]

I split some elm by hand many years ago. Well, I should say we, 3 brothers and my Father.
He would put it behind the shed for a year, to get the life out of it, as he would say, then we would split it the next year. We did have iron wedges to split it.
It could be spilt then.
It would be kinda stringy,like beech, but would split.

[chet]

Around these parts the Dutch elm disease pretty much wiped them out in the 70's  & early 80's. There was a significant forest component of elm around here and they were a very popular tree for city landscapes. As an arborist that was pretty much all I did during that time frame was remove dead elm. Now it is quite rare to see them get past a 10" DBH tree, before they succumb to the disease again.

[doc henderson]

we have Siberian and American elm still here.  

[Don P]

If they are of that size, go here:
red elm (hobbithouseinc.com)
Scroll down to just below where it says "A Note About Elms In The US" and click on the picture on the left of the quartersawn board with ray flecking. It might be worth trying to RRQS some.

There are buyers for the medicinal bark. Looks like its going for 55/lb on etsy 

[Nebraska]

It's really pretty stuff, I made some benches and bathroom trim out of it. Don't know what your market would be for it. Too nice for pallets. 

[moodnacreek]

Back in the day down on the farm elm was about all we burned because it was dieing. No log spliter then just a heavy axe and a hickory chopping block. You waited until it was frozen and split around making slabs until it was small. When i had the log truck on the road I worked a clearing job along the river and there was about 2 acres of nice elm that went for pallet. Another time a dump truck load came in to be cut into shoring, many clear butts, what a shame but in New York we waste everything.

[barbender]

 The only red elm I've dealt with, almost split just looking at it. Very straight grained. That wood came from about 80 miles south of my place which is getting into a different region of hardwoods. There was also butternut hickory on that job, which does not grow in my area.

 I think the elm common around me is slippery elm. That stuff is pernicious! A lot of times, when I buy ash firewood logs there will be a few sticks of slippery elm mixed in. I don't always notice when it is going through the firewood processor. That's the only wood I've had stop the splitter dead unless I try to split a crotch backwards. But the elm can appear to be a straight graine piece, free of knots, and still stop the splitter. It tears apart rather than splits.

[Don P]

Red elm is slippery elm 

[Bruno of NH]

I would probably quarter saw as much of as I could and a few slabs.
I'm going to get my kiln up and running this year.
I shut the pallet operation as my help constantly complained about it even the ones that didn't build them.
I'm going to try a couple of new things this year.

[doc henderson]

I called and will have the local Kansas State Forester come out help me ID these trees.  He agrees there is a separate "red elm" and most of ours near town is American but can be Siberian.  He and his wife are about to have a child that may come early.  If that happens it may be a while.

[moodnacreek]

Elm  has interlocking or serpentine grain hence the resistance to splitting. On the other hand it saws easy. Like most other wood short fat straight logs saw the best lumber. All the rest are in tension just waiting to be released.

[doc henderson]

It is so common here that I have had 5-foot stumps sit around for years, and when I saw it into slabs.  it stays flat and still looks great although with a little rustic bling, like end checks.  know you market!

[barbender]

 You're right, Don- red and slippery are the same. It must be American wlm that is prevalent in my area.