I think I have some elm here. I don’t see much of it and I know there are different varieties. From all I’ve heard how bad it splits, I have my doubts because this stuff split pretty easily - the straight pieces at least. Crotches and knots aren’t too fun.
We have white elm and Slippery (Red) elm here and the white elm is like splitting a cotton ball when it is fresh cut from live. The red elm has the dark heartwood with some reddish traces around dead knots. The straight parts of that don't split too bad if allowed to dry out some or if it has been standing dead for a while. That looks like the red elm we have here, but the bark can have a couple of similar but different looks to it.
looks like red elm to me as well, leaves, bark and wood color. I hand split fresh cut half a PU load back in May. See my threads An empty truck is a plus when you score wood by accident. & Hand splitting red elm
Doing some research online I think I have it down to either slippery elm or Siberian elm. Also, this has been cut for just a few months and big sheets of bark are already peeling off
the bark on mine peeled a bit when i split it. Day old cut when split. I see bark peeling off the splits mounded in my processing area. Two months CS
I burn a lot of elm typically. A lot is American elm, and most of that elm that I cut is dead standing with no bark. The couple of cords of Siberian elm I processed a couple Winters ago as tree service freebies had bark that easily popped off in sheets.
So what’s the fuss about splitting this stuff? Did I get a variety that isn’t bad or is this tree an anomaly? I’ve split plenty of sweet and black gum and this particular elm is a piece of cake compare to that stuff. Not that I’m complaining
The other kinds of elm are really not fun to try to split by axe/ maul. The American elm around here pretty much laughs at hand tools. Hydros work well, you just need to extend the ram all the way through the log to get it to separate. It doesn't pop open like oak or maple. Most elm it's stringy. It burns great though.
the red elm i got was fairly easy (dunno if you read the threads) by hand. Dead barkless elm is stringy...American or white elm. I wont touch the stuff.
I've posted over and over about our elm being easy to split (at least 99% of it is). I do believe though that you have red elm or something else as it certainly is not like the elm we have here which almost everyone claims it is about like iron. As I've stated, the best way to handle elm is to wait until it is dead then wait a bit longer. Wait until the bark is off of almost all of it is off before you cut it and it usually splits really easy.
Looks like red elm to me. We cut one awhile back, pretty stringy with the single wedge splitter, of course it came from the same area where the hickory is stringy too.
went to a local state park for a family picnic yesterday and checked out this tree. Pretty sure its red elm, small leaves though. The branch im holding was a shoot growing from the trunk and still attached
