Turning elm

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

While out and about with my daughter, we spied two huge elm trees someone had cut. I mistook it for walnut (wishful thinking) because the sap wood was so dark. As I got closer I saw it was not. The owner told me these were American Elm that I thought was wiped out by Dutch Elm disease. The gentleman was kind enough to give us four nice chunks of branch that were over 18" in diameter. The pith was way out of center leaving one big bowl blank that yielded the big bowl 16" x 9", a 12" core and a smaller core. Never having experienced elm I was unpleasantly surprised at the actual turning experience. The wood is extremely wet and heavy, the grain rather course and unexciting and the wood had a musty odor that stunk up the shop and my hands. The chips made a mess out of my cream colored turning jacket which now sports an orange bulls eye over my heart and something in the wood caused double my normal number of trips to the grinder. In it's defense, it cut nicely when wet.
Here's my question? Is elm worth the effort after it is dried and finished? Right now the wood is deep brown with an orange hue but it lightens as it dries. I saw Richard's post and the wood he used dried light but also had more character. I suspect his was some other variety of elm. I've seen turnings posted here that were Chinese elm that were gorgeous. What can I expect from the wood I described? Anyone with elm experience?
faust

[Dennis Ford]

I have turned quite a bit of elm and like it. It does smell bad when wet and gets fairly hard when dry. The dark heartwood responds well to an oil based finish and elm is very resistant to cracking.

[Ted Calver]

My experience has been the same as Dennis. I just found several blanks that had been overlooked since '06. I'm looking forward to turning them, but they will be hard as rock.

[Dale Miner]

American Elm is worth the effort. Red Elm (Slippery) is even better. I pass on Chinese Elm. Siberian Elm is worth the Effort.

Elm in general is a tough, hard wood. The interlocking grain takes some coercion to cut. It usually cuts clean with little tearout when dry using sharp tools. Avoid excess sanding as it will scallop the early/late wood. An oil finish is my preferred finish, at least for the first coat.

[Steve Kubien]

Not worth it all. Send it to me because I LOVE elm.

[Clint Baxter]

I turned some of the Siberian Elm and it came out really nice with good figure and coloration.

Clint

[David E Keller]

I like elm. It is fairly hard when dry, and I struggle to get clean cuts on the end grain at times. I love the finished product, so it's worth the effort to me.

[Bernie Weishapl]

American and Chinese smell reminds me of a wet dog. I do love turning it and it finishes nicely. I have several of these bowls for utility bowls.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Bernie, That's the best description of wet elm I've heard. Thanks to all for the responses. I will process the rest now that you tell me the wood dries and finishes nicely.
Dale, Thanks for the sanding tip.
faust

[Kathy Marshall]

I like turning elm. I got some siberian elm last year from Allen Thumen, turned nice and was a beautiful bronzy brown and this year I got some chinese elm locally and it has some nice color, more of an orangy light brown. The siberian elm sat for about 6 months before I turned it so it wasn't soaking wet. I think I caught it at just the right time, wet enough to turn nice and dry enough to sand and finish easily. The chinese elm was closer to soaking wet so was a little more work to sand. Both had a slight musty odor, but not horrible. I did get quite a bit of movement in the chinese elm nested set and the endgrain turned siberian elm hf (the face grain turned hf moved very little), but no cracks in any of them and the nested set has just been sitting on my kitchen counter since they were turned (no protection at all). So with my limited experience I would agree that it's resistant to cracking.