Anyone turn much elm?

[Scott Hackler]

I have a never ending supply of elm and (green anyway) it has a great looking grain pattern with light and dark wood. Anyone have experiences with elm as a dried finish item? It sure turns great and looks great, but I wonder how the "practice" peices will turn out (cracking, movement, ect).

On a side note, it smells like urine.. stinks real bad.

[George Guadiane]

I like elm (except for the smell).
It does turn nice and has great pattern... I just blew up an open vase form trying to make it thin. It was dry and still seemed to turn well for me - smelled less too.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

I have turned a few bowls out of it recently. The grain is great and the wood turns well. My only complaint would be that the smell. Wow! I think it might have been worse because of when the tree was cut down. It was wet beyond belief! But maybe not. In the end the smelly water/sap does wash off after a few days.

Joshua

[Bob Haverstock]

Scott,

I grew up on a farm, yep, it has that barnyard smell. When you are all done turning, the wood is pretty. I turned this piece before I got my Wolverine / low speed set up, it would dull my tools quickly.

It is wood and it is free. For me that would be good enough.

Bob


I have a never ending supply of elm and (green anyway) it has a great looking grain pattern with light and dark wood. Anyone have experiences with elm as a dried finish item? It sure turns great and looks great, but I wonder how the "practice" peices will turn out (cracking, movement, ect).

On a side note, it smells like urine.. stinks real bad.

[Burt Alcantara]

I had a very large block of American Elm that Teddy Roosevelt planted in our State Capitol. It was cut down because of renovation to the Capitol building. The wood was distributed to a number of woodworkers in the state. I was lucky to get this chunk.

By the time I got to it, it was bone dry. Turned OK even that dry. Finished with BLO and SealCoat. The elm turned almost black. I was very unhappy with the finish.

For the remaining pieces I'll probably go with a clear poly or something similar.

Burt

[Cody Colston]

I've turned lots of Elm. It turns great and has some outstanding color and grain patterns. If you cut the trees in the late fall, it won't have that wet dog smell, either.

Elm will move a lot and warp when drying but it's not bad about cracking...due to the interlocking grain I suppose. Elm also spalts easily. Leave a log laying outside in a shaded place and in about 6 months it will have some great spalting.

[William Bachtel]

I am in the middle of turning lots of Red Elm. I got a couple of logs here that are over 3 ft in dia, and got 3 l2 foot logs out of the tree, and one very large burl, yes I love turning it, and if anyone local to me wants a free piece, but not the burl pm me.

[Scott Hackler]

Hey Bob, that is a nice example. My elm has almost walnut dark color, but I would assume it will lighten up after it dries. I have a ton more elm logs sitting outside the shop (next to the birch and locust I just snagged) that all came from the limb drop off in our town! I love free wood.

[Richard Madison]

Nice bowl Bob. Have turned some cedar elm from a tree cut to build new shop. Kind of nondescript wood but not unattractive. Turns ok but mine had a tendency to develop small cracks. Still have part of a log outdoors so maybe can find a spalted piece.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

There's a few different Elm species that grow in N.Am., they all turn well, but they don't look all the same, I have turned quite a few pieces of Elm of the different species that grow here, there's a couple that only grow farther south and so I haven't turned any of these.
American Elm (aka White or Grey Elm) is not very hard and dense, and Red Elm (aka slippery Elm) is softer yet, both are lighter colored, Rock Elm is very dense and quite hard wood, it is also much darker in color, Siberian is almost as soft as American Elm but it is often almost as dark as Black Walnut.
They all are smelly but that disappears when dry, it has interlocking grain and so splits less easily, the softer Elm will rot and spalt quite quickly, the harder Elm less so.
I will add a few pictures here, that will give you some idea of the different Elm woods, have fun and take care :D.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have turned a lot of elm and it has some great color. If you cut it in the spring it has the wet dog smell like Cody said.