Use for Elm?

[Irvin Cooper]

Good afternoon.

As many people throughout our nation's midsection have experienced last week, the ice storm from a couple of weeks ago really brought down a lot of trees here....both firewood and some nice stock.

I have a chance to get a really large elm log. I have never worked with elm, nor do I know much about it.

Has anyone used it or know much about it?

If I get it, I will have it milled into 5/4 flatsawn stock.

I would appreciate any feedback on this matter.

Thanks.

Irv

[Bill White]

Wagon wheel hubs.
That stuff is REALLY squirrley as the grain usually goes all over the place.
That being said, you can work it by careful plane work or sanding and scraping.
Bill:p

[george wilson]

The seats of the original English made Windsor chairs,which look nothing like American Windsors,were made of elm.

To make wheel hub material,the hubs are sawn to length,and a 1" hole is drilled right through the center of the wood. Then,the hubs don't crack as they air dry.

Air dry time is usually considered to be 1" thickness per year.

[scott spencer]

Red elm has some pretty amazing grain. It is prone to movement after being dimensioned, and fuzzing even with good cutters. If you let it acclimate well, dimension it slightly overized and let it acclimate for another day or two, it's fairly controllable.

I made two night stands out of the stuff and it's been quite well behaved!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/hewood/stuff/elm1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/hewood/000_0287.jpg

[Lance Norris]

Ive used red elm for lots of router bowls and mitered boxes. It is really beautiful... and cheap. I think my favorite lumber yard asks about $1.25 a bd. ft. for 4/4.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Irvan,

Both elms make great looking cabinets. I have used both graw and red for a reloading bench and small table.

Quinn

[Brent Ring]

I will be posting photos in the next couple of weeks of a black walnut/elm hope/cedar chest I am finishing for my daughters 16th birthday. I found some awesome bookmatched boards that became the front panels for this chest in elm. I think that it has some great grain opportunities. Go for it!

It does require some TLC though!

[Rick Gustafson]

Irvin;

We used a 6" slab of red elm for our fireplace mantle. We removed about half of the thickness of the bark for a really unique look. Will forward pictures as soon as we get it stained and finished.

[Tim Anderson]

I have a gun cabinet made from elm and used it to edge my set up table. Beautiful grain,it looks like it has a lot of depth. We did have some issues with wood movement during construction but I would work with it again.

[Alan Schwabacher]

The interlaced grain of elm is different from most curly grain. It makes the wood extremely difficult to split, so excellent for uses where that would be a big problem. Elm is sort of like natural plywood: the grain direction of each yearly layer is a bit different. It's not perpendicular as in plywood, but it's different enough that it complicates handplaning.

[Chris Schumann]

I'm (still) taking down an American (white) elm in my yard. I worked with it a bit while it was wet (had new tools to try out!) and I found the sawdust to be ... unpleasant. It caused itching and a lot of sneezing. Have respirators handy, wear long sleeves, and be prepared to put your shop clothes in a hamper when you leave the shop until you find out how it affects you.

A friend helping us clean up the yard got itchy just hauling branches around.

One more traditional use of elm is for blacksmiths stumps. It resists burning (?) a little and resists water damage a bit more than other woods.

I hope to scrape enough boards out of the pile to make a tool rack like on the cover of the October/November 2008 American Woodworker.

[Paul Ryan]

I have done a fair amont of work with red elm. It is much like red oak, same density, grain is heavy. I really like the smell of it. Reminds me of burbon! I get thirsty when I work with it.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Works well for regular turning, too.

Bruce

[David Keller NC]

And makes superb tool handles. Not quite as good as hickory, in that respect, but way better than maple. Save some of the off-cuts from your milling operation for this purpose - you'll be glad you did the next time you want to re-handle a chisel or a hatchet.

[Cody Colston]

I've turned lots of Red Elm and sawed a few short planks from it, also. It spalts fairly easily and you might consider letting it do so before sawing into lumber. Seal the log ends with Anchorseal and leave it outside for about 6 months. You will get some really interesting boards.