Its been my experience if fresh cut living (green) elm dries for a bit and the ends check, its a MAJOR effort to hand split. I usually turn away any partly dried/dead elm for that reason. My red elm score from yesterday was less than 24 hours cut so i decided to CS right away. I cant tell you the last time ive taken this much elm from a score as its been that long. Most of the logs halved in 3 whacks. The first blow would bounce off and whacks 2, 3, or 4 would finish it. Split pretty straight and clean all the way through. Most were so wet they gave a "spit" upon impact with the Fiskars. Does the moisture content affect the stringiness of the split? First round i split. 11 diameter, 16" long, right through a knot too. Grain was rather straight on most. Once halved they split in one whack. Even the gnarly grained ones split. A couple need noodling though. I decided to try one of "Y" logs and 3 whacks did it. Another "Y" log that took 3 whacks. I was tiring and didnt want to try this last Y, but did and same...3 whacks. I was slacking a bit and this one round reminded me it was elm. The worst one for twisty grain at the other end. Decent mound of splits. Straight and not all stringy. Mound of shorts, uglies, gnarlies etc. Few left to split and noodle. Maybe 25% ended up here, but that is usually the case on roadside scores regardless of wood type. So, would i take an elm score like this again? Yes! I wasnt going full bore driving in a 6" railroad spike in one blow type of swing, but much more oomph than if i was splitting red oak or ash from my recent scores. Would i want to hand split elm like this all the time...NO!
That's some nice looking wood. My experience with Elm is similar. Either split it right away or wait till it's frozen solid. Nice work!
Beautiful wood. Any chance you can get some good bark pics? I have a hard time finding pics of red elm bark for some reason.
Thanks. It's ridiculously difficult to find good images of the difference between American and Red Elm on Google images. Some of the images even contradict one another.
I agree. I wasnt 100% sure this was red elm as have almost no experience with it. The wood i took was the smaller diameter so dunno if trunk bark is different Moparguy
Some pretty wood/ grain there Brad. Must be a reason it’s not used as a fine lumber tho. Must be as tough to work in the wood shop as it is in the wood pile.
Im not sure Joe. I think it is not dimensionally stable when dry. Prone to checking/twisting? I could be wrong. Mebbe one of the milling guys could answer that.
Workability is usually the category that makes the largest determination. Sounds like working with aromatic cedar but harder. It’s hard to get furniture quality planing done on aromatic without a lot of tear out. Red Elm | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood)
We'll have to do a comparison, Brad. I have some red elm (up to 24 inch rounds -- had to have been well over 100 pounds apiece, and maybe close to 200, given how wet they were) from my recent score. I was able to split the smaller rounds (say, 10 inches and under) from the upper limbs pretty easy. Did nearly half a cord of that. But, when I started into some of the bigger rounds, still very wet, I found it very difficult to get through, even with wedges and sledges. I was thinking I'd let them sit and dry for a little bit before trying again (or, alternatively, borrowing my friend's splitter! ). I'll roll one of the big rounds out this weekend and give it some whacks. Of course, I have to get down to the big rounds cuz I just piled a bunch of rounds I cut from my next door neighbor on the elm rounds last night. Gotta get through them first!
There was some large wood from the tree but i only grabbed what i could left RobGuru This was the thread i posted on Wednesday. An empty truck is a plus when you score wood by accident. I wondered if the larger trunk rounds would split the same as the stuff i grabbed. Largest round i bucked was 11". Even those were heavy and laden with water.
The Fiskars did that ! Man you did a good job on that Elm.I have some Elm to split which takes a axe a sledge and three wedges to split.By the way let me get out to that pile right now.Bye !
How'd you make out with your elm Rich L ? I finished it off yesterday. Wasnt much left. 3 logs left to noodle.
Man that some delicious looking wood.Me I got about a half cord left to do.My wood is dead and dried Elm so I'm not rushing to split but so much at a time.I work three jobs so I pace myself.I keep my Elm covered.It loves to suck up water.When do you think it'll be ready ?
not a species i normally take bigfrank , but it was sitting roadside, fresh cut and as a dedicated hoarder i couldnt drive by W/O stopping for some.
