I think it's a regional thing. Has to do with the minerals in the soil. I get clinkers in my stove when I burn elm. I also get them sometimes with ash. Not often, but it happens from time to time.
I pulverize any clinkers I get and it all goes into the garden beds with the rest of my wood ash. My plants thrive on it
Some people actually work outside when it is cold enough to have a fire going inside. Swamp maple (red maple) 'smoke' doesn't smell so great either.
I have started cutting up some dead elm to use while some of my oak dries. It does split easily with my Speeco.
JCMC Yikes. I have the same splitter, but I guess I did not have the same elm! I had a little bit of stringing up, but nothing like that! On the positive side, more surface area for drying and more surface area to light on fire!
Yes that piece of elm was cut the same day I split it very gnarly! I have split Elm before that split easy but it was seasoned before I split it.
I have noodled quite a bit. I must say, I don't mind noodling. I only split by hand, so if it's difficult, I noodle, no matter what the species. Plus, I like the shavings for bedding, in my dog pens, and I also used it for fire starting.
I ended up noodling up some of the elm, just because I knew it wouldn't burn very good in the brush pile we made, since it was of fair sized diameter. My brother in law helped me with his grappler on his Kubota, and we piled the rest of it up along with several cedar trees. I will burn it all one of these days. I saved some of the bigger cedar, also. All total about a face cord of wood, cut split and stacked, and a big brush pile left in the field to burn. Farm cleanup: every little bit helps.
I imagine the smell depends on which type of elm, much like oak-ie red vs white? We have American, slippery and winged elm here, but I've never studied them hard enough to say anything other than "elm".. I've never cut much elm in the past, but just got into some the other day from February's ice storm damage, and figured I'd process it since so many here say it's decent to good (or better) firewood. I cut a few pieces off a volleyball sized limb the other day to test a saw, and have to say it smelt like dog chit. I was a bit surprised...and no, i did not step in a pile, I checked.
My co-worker had an elm fall in his yard. I don't know which variety it was, but do know the Spanish moss on it was the DEBIL...worse than the strands of Kevlar in chaps... We got almost a trailer load, it was green when we got it. We dumped it and let it set in the GA sun for about 5 months, bark fell off, split good with hydro. https://youtube.com/shorts/tvbY8v9oNPk?feature=share
The best way to split it is to split with the grain of the wood. don't try to take a round and split it right down the middle you'll fight it and its very stringy. The best way is to go along the outsides until you have about a 4-6 inch dia round left, that was originally the center of the round. I hope that makes sense.
