# Elm Pictures



## dustytools (Mar 4, 2008)

Ian and I got together a little while back and milled up a small Elm log that I had set aside to mill up. Although we didnt get any action shots of the milling I did take a couple shots of the boards after they had been edged and temporarily stickered in the shop. I ended up with four 10/4 and six 6/4 boards all between 6" to 8" wide by various lengths (3' to 4' +/-). BTW, Ian I still havent told anyone about us having the 084 mounted up on the small log mill :greenchainsaw: View attachment 66426


View attachment 66427


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## dustytools (Mar 4, 2008)

A couple more shots. View attachment 66428


View attachment 66429


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## stonykill (Mar 4, 2008)

nice Dusty. I love working with elm. Something different. I'm building a table now out of Elm, just started it this week.


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## dustytools (Mar 4, 2008)

stonykill said:


> nice Dusty. I love working with elm. Something different. I'm building a table now out of Elm, just started it this week.



Thanks Stonykill. Ive never worked with Elm before but I am looking forward to it. These were milled with my little rocking chairs in mind, hopefully in a year or two I will be posting some pics of one or two.


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## stonykill (Mar 4, 2008)

dustytools said:


> Thanks Stonykill. Ive never worked with Elm before but I am looking forward to it. These were milled with my little rocking chairs in mind, hopefully in a yead or two I will be posting some pics of one or two.



man is that stuff hard when dry. My poor little planer today. 

Hopefully yours smells better than mine. My tree was 36 inches at the base. My property was a cow pasture until 1966. The elm tree was near a hedrow. EVERY cut I make, the elm smells like cow manure. :jawdrop: I love the look of elm, but mine smells bad. I haven't milled anymore in a while, so I don't know if it was just the one tree, or if thats just the smell.


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## dustytools (Mar 4, 2008)

stonykill said:


> man is that stuff hard when dry. My poor little planer today.
> 
> Hopefully yours smells better than mine. My tree was 36 inches at the base. My property was a cow pasture until 1966. The elm tree was near a hedrow. EVERY cut I make, the elm smells like cow manure. :jawdrop: I love the look of elm, but mine smells bad. I haven't milled anymore in a while, so I don't know if it was just the one tree, or if thats just the smell.



I believe that you are right on about the smell. These had been out in the weather for a while before I had a chance to edge them this weekend and they are very stout smelling especially when wet.


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## wdchuck (Mar 4, 2008)

That is some nice looking wood, I've quite a few elms that I'll be taking down this year, 30' of clear trunk on 5 of them, nice to know how they'll look when I open them up.


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## dustytools (Mar 4, 2008)

wdchuck said:


> That is some nice looking wood, I've quite a few elms that I'll be taking down this year, 30' of clear trunk on 5 of them, nice to know how they'll look when I open them up.



If you intend to cut the tops up for firewood plan on finding a splitter if you dont already have one. My splitting maul just bounces off of this stuff.


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## stonykill (Mar 4, 2008)

dustytools said:


> If you intend to cut the tops up for firewood plan on finding a splitter if you dont already have one. My splitting maul just bounces off of this stuff.




no kidding. Elm is tough to split. Before I had a splitter I'd wait until it was zero or below to split it. Still tough then. 

Elm is also my favorite wood for the owb. I get the best burn times off of it. Gets up to temp fast, and the owb goes dormant. I love elm all around. Cept for that cow crap thing :fart:


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## Haywire Haywood (Mar 4, 2008)

I figured that elm was just for exercise of running the mill and would end up pitched down the bank or tossed in the burn pile. Nice save.

Ian


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## woodshop (Mar 4, 2008)

Nice job guys, pretty lookin' wood. Do you know by any chance what kind of elm that was? I know there are several different species of elm east of the Mississippi. I've only ever milled a few elms, but they were all creamy white, with a small darker streak in the very center, sortof like some maples get, but mostly whitish wood. Your elm looks pretty, dark... almost as dark as butternut or cherry does.


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## glennschumann (Mar 5, 2008)

Some very pretty boards! I really like the grain. I've got a bench in progress for my sister, and the elm is tough stuff to work. Very hard, and the wood I have is "rowed". In quarter sawn wood, my hand planes (very sharp and with minimal throat opening) still tear out the grain between every other ring... I think the grain twists back and forth every year, making the wood difficult to work, and difficult to split.

As for the smell, I hear there are several varieties of elm, one of them being 'piss elm' that, well, has an odor.

Despite the difficulties, I'm still planning on milling some elm a friend has... one really nice, big crotch that will make something nice...

Have fun.


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## wdchuck (Mar 5, 2008)

dustytools said:


> If you intend to cut the tops up for firewood plan on finding a splitter if you dont already have one. My splitting maul just bounces off of this stuff.



Hydraulic splitter, if mine ever breaks down, I'll rent one before using a maul again. 


Some varieties of elm have a very criss/cross grain, making it very difficult to split, and at the same time, making it valuable for certain applications because of the grain.
American elm is white inside, cross grain, tough wood.

CHinese elm is dark, straighter grain, easier to split, better lumber characteristics.

I'll be dropping some of each, and will put up pics when I mill them.


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## rayvil01 (Mar 5, 2008)

That is very pretty wood! 

I've never even cut Elm for firewood. Always avoided it because it has a reputation for being ornery to split. I also heard it tended to have corksrew grain. But, that could be a wife's tale. Based on these pics, I won't turn down the next one that comes along. Thanks for the pics.


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## dustytools (Mar 5, 2008)

woodshop said:


> Nice job guys, pretty lookin' wood. Do you know by any chance what kind of elm that was? I know there are several different species of elm east of the Mississippi. I've only ever milled a few elms, but they were all creamy white, with a small darker streak in the very center, sortof like some maples get, but mostly whitish wood. Your elm looks pretty, dark... almost as dark as butternut or cherry does.



This wood was extremley wet due to being left outside. Ill try to snap a picture or two of it after the surface dries a bit. Im not sure at all about which type of Elm this one was.


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## del schisler (Mar 5, 2008)

*working with elm*



dustytools said:


> Thanks Stonykill. Ive never worked with Elm before but I am looking forward to it. These were milled with my little rocking chairs in mind, hopefully in a year or two I will be posting some pics of one or two.



watch for splinter's in the hand very splinter prone Or at least mine was Nice to work with I have made lot's of items del


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## stonykill (Mar 5, 2008)

del schisler said:


> watch for splinter's in the hand very splinter prone Or at least mine was Nice to work with I have made lot's of items del



splinters and dust. Occupational hazards


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## slabmaster (Mar 5, 2008)

I've milled some. It tends to warp and bow when drying. so i do mill it thicker now.It's good for bending so should work good for rocking chairs.


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## AndyR (Mar 5, 2008)

Nice looking wood. 

Kind of looks like some of the "Siberian elm" I've seen on Ebay, though I think there is a "Red elm" too. I do a little bit of blacksmithing and know that elm was often the wood of choice for a stump to mount an anvil to, because of it's resistance to splitting.

There are A LOT of elms in this town with the tops half dead. Kind of sad, but at the same time, for the opportunistic person with a mill and the right connections...

Andy


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## BlueRider (Mar 5, 2008)

glennschumann said:


> Some very pretty boards! I really like the grain. I've got a bench in progress for my sister, and the elm is tough stuff to work. Very hard, and the wood I have is "rowed". In quarter sawn wood, my hand planes (very sharp and with minimal throat opening) still tear out the grain between every other ring... I think the grain twists back and forth every year, making the wood difficult to work, and difficult to split.
> 
> As for the smell, I hear there are several varieties of elm, one of them being 'piss elm' that, well, has an odor.
> 
> ...




Piss elm is likely a corruption of pish elm, an term of distain refering to its difficulty to split for firewood. Other names include winged elm, witch elm, water elm, cork elm, and red elm. all refer to the same tree. it is a reasonable assumtion the think other wise as the smell of most elm is objectionable. The lone exception I have found is chinese elm which has a spicy scent but not the rank barn yard smell of most other elms. I have also found the smell to be slightly less objectionable once the wood is dry.The elm Dusty has looks more like american or white elm to me (two names for the same tree) but it is hard to tell from a pic. I have attaced a pic of a display stand made from two diferent types of elm. The legs and shelves are siberian elm and the central collumn is american or white em.


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Mar 6, 2008)

Nice lumber. I have a bit of it drying in the barn myself, some of which is nicely spalted. It's nice stuff to work with too.


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## farmer (Mar 6, 2008)

I saw a lot of American Elm for firewood. I usually cut trees after they are dead but have cut lots of live ones and never really noticed a strong odor. Dead elm splits better than green. You can see small cracks that let you know where the wood wants to split. Even after you get a wedge in it sometimes you have to finish cutting the stringy fibres with an ax.


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## big daddio (Mar 6, 2008)

that's some nice lookin' lumber. elm doesn't seem to be real abundant around here. just ran into a few when i was loggin'. one's i saw had about 1/4 to 1/3 sapwood, maybe kin to the ones you had woodshop.


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## woodshop (Mar 6, 2008)

AndyR said:


> ...Kind of looks like some of the "Siberian elm" I've seen on Ebay...



I think Andy is on to something... I went out and checked my stash in the shed and came across a chunk I had labeled siberian elm, and it was pretty dark, almost brown. Dusty I think you may have some siberian elm there.


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## dustytools (Mar 7, 2008)

I read about different types of Elm that are very common in Kentucky. I didnt know this but Hackberry is in the Elm family. One of the characteristics of Hackberry is that it splits easily (mine didnt). Others are Water Elm, Winged Elm, American Elm (also called White Elm) , Slippery Elm (also called Red Elm), September Elm, and Rock Elm (also called Cork Elm). While looking at pictures of the bark of these trees I noticed that Water Elm has a bark that is similar to that of Shagbark Hickory. The closest match to the one that I cut was pictured as Rock Elm. I bought this book about a year or so ago from our local library, Its titled "Trees and Shrubs of Kentucky". The librarian asked me after about my 8th or 9th time that I checked it out If I would like for her to order me a copy.


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## Haywire Haywood (Mar 7, 2008)

dustytools said:


> One of the characteristics of Hackberry is that it splits easily (mine didnt).



+1 I got some 'free' firewood once that was hackberry... couldn't split it at all... it went into the bonfire.

Ian


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## scottr (Mar 7, 2008)

Terry, do you see wavy bands in the end grain of your elm ?


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## dustytools (Mar 7, 2008)

I dont recall any but I will check them tomorrow and let you know. Do these bands help identify the species?


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## scottr (Mar 7, 2008)

No, it's just a characteristic of elm . If you have the book 'Wood and How to Dry It' you can read the article on pages 66 and 67.


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## dustytools (Mar 8, 2008)

scottr said:


> Terry, do you see wavy bands in the end grain of your elm ?



I looked at the boards this morning and didnt notice any wavy bands Scott. Ill check them again after they have had time to dry a bit. They still have a lot of moisture in them from where they sat outside in the rain and snow for the last month or two. Im gonna move them out of the shop and to the drying shed after this "blizzard" moves out.


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## BlueRider (Mar 9, 2008)

the wavey lines are easiest to see on the face grain with an obliqe cut. they will appear as little 'w's and once you see them you will then be able to see them on full face grain. on end grain they show up as a pattern in the way the pores are arranged.


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## woodshop (Mar 9, 2008)

BlueRider said:


> the wavey lines are easiest to see on the face grain with an obliqe cut. they will appear as little 'w's and once you see them you will then be able to see them on full face grain. on end grain they show up as a pattern in the way the pores are arranged.



It should be noted that they are often difficult to see unless you make a very clean cut with a utility knife that has a new blade in it. Cut across at least two or three rings, and you will see the pattern of the pores which are unique for every species. If you have a table saw and you have a very good sharp blade on it, you can sometimes see the pores and that pattern from a standard crosscut. 

If you're really interested, slip a small chunk that has at least one or two rings into an envelope (like a 1x3 1/4 inch thick and send it to me, I will fire up my scope and do a positive ID using the books I have.


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