Cut, split, and burned a lot of different hardwoods, but never elm. So, splitting my first ever three cords of elm? Have heard it isn't the greatest wood and stinks a bit when burning? Just looking for opinions on elm. Splits easy enough. The rounds have been sitting for over a year so bark comes off nicely. Any thoughts?
I think it's a good wood to burn. I dont really think it "stinks" when burning, the smoke does smell uglier than other wood smoke though!
There's a lot of lesser wood around than elm, and it's plentiful in our area. I'm not fond of the smell of it burning but it isn't pungent by any means. Enjoy those BTU's, Brett ! It will keep you nice and warm. By the way, welcome to FHC!
Nice looking pics. Also nice to meet you. And nice setup.. I think sometimes elm may stink a little when splitting the wet stuff. But the experts will be here soon.
Elm does burn well once dried enough. I can't believe yours split without much of a problem. Usually, it is stringy and is a bear to split. Elm just isn't a sweet burning wood. You certainly wouldn't want to smoke meat with it. Al
I burn quite a bit of elm and with a wood stove inside, I don't care what the smoke smells like outside. BTW I live out in the country so no real close neighbors.
My first thought is if it splits easy enough it isn't elm! Of course, I split by hand, so perhaps a different situation. The up side is that there are so many strings that it is almost self-kindling. Burns fine, I really like if for my heating my outdoor oven. Plenty of heat and about the perfect duration of burn to get a good heat soak for retained heat cooking. Oak works great for live-fire cooking but it burns seemingly forever so I need to wait a lot longer before I can use the oven if I'm planning on retained heat cooking.
Before I felled these 3 elms, I determined by the leaves and bark they would be elm; confirmed with the farmer who owned the property as well. However, somewhat stringy, but not as much as I would have thought. I have not split any bigger rounds yet though. I can't say how easy they would be to split by hand. If this is some other kind of wood, wouldn't know what.
Elm's great wood. It burns nicely, and the American elm smells good while burning. Yes, it's mostly a pita to split though. But if you have hydraulics, it's not an issue.
Where you able to take any leaf/bark pics? We CSS'd some Siberian Elm and it stunk upon splitting. Only did that last summer, so still waiting to run it in the stove.....
Elm can be great or it can be a PITA. In our case, we always wait until it is dead and then wait until all or most of the bark has fallen off. Doing this, most times you can split it by hand if need be and I did that for many, many moons. But, cut it green or before the bark comes off and it can be a different animal altogether. Also, if you cut it while there is still sap, yes indeed, it does stink. One more good reason to wait until it is dead. In addition, it depends a lot on where it grows. If in a fencerow or yard, do expect it to be a twisted up mess. If it grew inside the woods, most times it will be straight grained at least for most of the tree. The crotches of course can pose problems so make sure you cut those pieces short. Here is an example of some elm we cut. Yes, it split very easily. Also this is big for elm in this area as it tends to die off while still young. And did you notice the date on that picture?! Simply amazing!
Wow...great information. Thanks. I let my wood sit in the sun for two summers before splitting it and it was somewhat dry, was cut early spring 2015 green. It does split fairly easily. Cut 3 trees. Will see how the batch finishes up when all split. Each tree might be a little different, though all looked the same and were in the same fence row. I really like the wood now that I have split some bigger rounds. Central Michigan in December...where is the snow?
