Cutting Elm?

[cadet]

I've found a large stand of elm saplings up to 6-8" diameter the owners are happy for me to pillage; however, doing a bit of reading, elm, while a great bow wood (particularly tension strong, apparently), seems to be a tricky beast to split decent staves from, due to interlocking grain. How should I handle it? what time of year to cut? how to split (or saw)? Bark on or off? what best to seal the ends with? 1 year per inch of thickness still hold true? So many questions...

Might be asking the same question about an unkempt Hawthorn hedge soon, too...

[hunterguy1991]

Have no experience splitting the stuff myself but I know a fair few guys over in Europe and Scandinavia that use the stuff and from photos I've seen of them splitting it, it splits like a dream... My memory goes straight to a photo of a 10 or so inch dia log, maybe 2.2m long, gun barrel straight with a perfect straight split up the middle of it to get it in half... Will look around for the photo for you.

Would you be at all interested in selling a log or stave once you do have it? Id be very interested in getting some for use in a warbow if possible.

Cheers,

Colin

[hunterguy1991]

Found it!!

This is just the end of the log but gives you the idea at least...

Split elm log.jpg (68.03 KiB) Viewed 2217 times

[Nezwin]

There's a fair few people who would be keen to do a timber swap/buy if you had some Elm staves you'd be keen to offload

[yeoman]

I think people in the Northern Hemisphere have a different perspective on timber to us in Australia. To them, a wood with a density of 0.8 is fairly heavy. I'm not sure I'd bother with some species if I found a sample under 0.8. I've made bows from Ironbark that were about 1.3!

Similarly so with splitting. Ash, pine, willow and blah blah blah all split wonderfully. Elm is just a bit harder, not some titanic beast only conquerable by Hercules.

I'd cut and split it whenever you can get a hold of it. If you do it before the leaves spring out, there might be less sap/moisture in the timber to have to season out. Also, the earlier you cut it, the earlier you can make bows from it.

I echo Nezwin's comment. There'd be many on here interested in getting some Elm.

[Hamish]

Haven't split any elm myself but pretty much agree with the other guys, that it should split as long as the tree has grown straight and has straight grain.
What a lot of the Americans do with elm is cut a kerf either with a chain saw, or with multiple passes with a hand held circular saw( you need to be vary careful to avoid kickback. Then they whack wedges into the kerf and it splits more cleanly and evenly.

As for processing, winter is the best time for whitewoods because, in summer many of them develop ugly fungal bluestain which thrives in high heat/humidity.

I store all my wood with the bark off to avoid insect infestation, but give the back surface several coats of PVA glue to stop checking. Store in a cool dry place .

[cadet]

I'll see how I go, and If I get some decent ones I'll offer a few... like all bowyering I guess: I'll either get a bow or a lot of lovingly crafted kindling!