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Elm (Midwestern Variety)

Joined
Apr 25, 2004
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Annandale, New Jersey
Elm can be fussy-when-wet because of its heavily interlocked grain structure (same thing that makes it nearly impossible to split for firewood) so it will tend to feather a lot; keep your tools very sharp. Most that I've seen used, whether turned or flat, has been spalted, probably because otherwise it's rather boring, where it develops many colors that can go from red to blue.

I just scored some heavy Northern Hackberry (an Elm relative) which I've got "planted" in the spalting patch.

BTW, my Avitar on this forum is an Elm piece I did a number of years ago.


Mark
 
Joined
May 10, 2004
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minnesota
Elm is good for jigs etc. It is so tough the chuck or screws will never let go.
You don't split elm. You seperate it with a hydraulic wood splitter. Other then that it is the very best firewood of all native woods.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
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Southwest Missouri
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www.hiltonhandcraft.com
SQUARE2ROUND said:
Elm is good for jigs etc. It is so tough the chuck or screws will never let go.
You don't split elm. You seperate it with a hydraulic wood splitter. Other then that it is the very best firewood of all native woods.

We use a 20 ton and 50 ton hydraulic wood splitter and it's very very tough going with elm. Like you said, it's more of a separation rather than a splitting. They take 3 times as long to split than any other wood. Sycamore has the interlocking grain too but not quite as strong as the elm.

Fortunately, elm isn't native in this part of the midwest. The cities used to plant these things and now they're all dying so there's a lot of it out there for the trimmers to hack down.

Around here, Red Oak is the predominate firewood with Walnut being second and the other Oaks and Hickory coming after. Throw a few pieces of Osage Orange in to clean up the chimney and you're set.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2004
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Traverse City, MI
I recently came into 3 Chinese Elm trees - largest was about 14" diameter at the base. I've turned a number of bowls and vessels from this wet wood and think it turns quite nicely, but, as mentioned, really sharp tools are required. Since these trees have only been down about a month (cut to manageable size and Anchorsealed within hours of cutting) I haven't seen any spalting yet but am looking forward to it. The wood I have has a very distinctive grain and contrast between sapwood and heartwood. I like it.

Whit
 
Joined
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Whit said:
Since these trees have only been down about a month (cut to manageable size and Anchorsealed within hours of cutting) I haven't seen any spalting yet but am looking forward to it.

Nor are you likely to see it unless it was there in the first place. If you've done a good job of sealing with the Anchorseal then you've effectively sealed out either...

1) The specific fungus needed to produce the spalting in the first place in order to get in there.

2) The environmental conditions (in this case enough oxygen) to support the spalting process IF the specific fungus is already in there to begin with. You already have moisture, being freshly cut and sealing it in with the Anchorseal, and presumably keeping it in a place where the temperature is right though.

At best, if all other conditions are favorable, you'll have the spalting continue for only a short time IF it's already begun. If it hasn't, then you'll likely not get it to start now.
 
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