Thread: Should I try to get the trunk?

Yes. What little I've seen of it, it's fine grained, and ideal for turning. Send it all to me and I'll see if that's correct ;-}

It's coarse grained and lovely stuff. never mind that old one-armed bandit, chop it down quick and send it to me!

Before you get too orgasmic, Ern & WW, you should find out if it's a real Elm (Ulmus) or its cousin, the far more common Celtis, aka Chinese Elm. Where you are it could be either, but any further north & I would make a small bet it'll be a Celtis. I believe the former is good stuff (never had my hands on it, though, so no personal experience). The latter is of limited value, except, perhaps to turners. Its bland white wood has a strong desire to twist & warp horribly. It does indeed peel well on the lathe, and you can make some things out of it quite successfully. I've used it for handles - a bit light & soft, but ok for some applications. Useless as firewood, too.

It's a pity it isn't a more useful furniture wood, as it's about the only thing that competes with Camphor laurel in the gullies around here!

Cheers,

Thanks for the heads-up Ian.

Now honestly I was just selflessly offering to do some testing, and of course reliable testing requires good sample sizes

I've done a deal of turning with what I believe to be English Elm (loppings from Melb parks and gardens) and it's good stuff to work. Bit coarse grained which limits the finishing options, and the biggest drawback is that while fresh it has a beautiful contrast btwn cream sapwood and choc brown heartwood which then all changes to a boring beige with oxidation and UV. Also tricky to dry in thick pieces as internal checking seems to occur all too often.

Originally Posted by rsser

.......Now honestly I was just selflessly offering to do some testing, and of course reliable testing requires good sample sizes
......

Yairs, Ern - we woodies are such a generous lot.


Judging from the little bit has gone through my hands in Nth America and when I lived in Vic, real Elm is a vastly different animal (or should that read vegetable?) from Celtis. I'd say grab any Elm you can, but don't bother going out of your way for Celtis. If people insist on introducing these botanical rabbits into the country, they should at least check with us woodies to see if they are useful! The mongrel things constantly pop up all over our place, & if I don't find them & pull them out, they are substantial saplings in no time. If only Toonas & Flindersias would grow like that!

Cheers,
IW

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CBob%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <wompatibility> <wreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <wseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </wompatibility> <wrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</wrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Elm is one of my favourite timbers; it is reasonably light, works beautifully and takes a good finish. The variation in grain and figure can be stunning. Japanese Elm is usually a little tamer.

I'll bow to IanW's superior knowledge of the different species' Australian habitat. I have milled approximately twenty to thirty Elms from Melbourne parks and streets and from several Avenues of Honour around Victoria too and I can attest to Victorian examples being far superior to any Elms I worked back in the UK, in terms of girth, variation and quality of timber. I recently cut up an Elm board that was 4.2m long and 980mm wide for virtually the whole length.

Yes, there seems to be a fair number of over-mature elms around Melb - you getting access to culled trees WW?

As with your slab, it's poss to get good sized bowl blanks on occasion. My biggest bowl out of the stuff was about 14" x 6". ubeaut Shithot Waxstik worked very well as a finish on its own.

Originally Posted by rsser

Yes, there seems to be a fair number of over-mature elms around Melb - you getting access to culled trees WW?

I closed my timber yard about eight years ago, but yes, I used to have contacts in most councils and with Melbourne Parks and Gardens etc. Some of the culled trees used to be gathered at the old Army depot in Swan Street where I'd go and pick what I wanted. Others I sourced where they stood. One of the most spectacular Elms I ever sawed came out of Fitzroy Gardens.

Coincidently, I've recently been offered eight Elms which have to be removed from a Melbourne park. So far I've only seen photos of them, but when they decide to make a move, I will be posting here and hopefully I can strike a deal with one of the forum millers. There will be a lot of branch wood up for grabs for the turners as everything must go and if it's not removed, it will be chipped.

Sounds promising.

My first haul was short logs that had been left in a park in Carlton. I drafted a colleague to help carry them down to our office in Cardigan St., after work one evening. We both got filthy and raised some comment about bark and dirt on the office floor.

2nd was a felled tree aside the oval in Porepunkah. Returning from a holiday with a car full of kids and trailer full of camping gear, we were able to get some logs strapped to the tow bar. There was more than a bit of sag in the car rear!

I slabbed a "chinese elm" here in town a few months back - was told it was CE by tree lopper - so not 100% sure of it's origin, but it slabbed nicely and looked a great colour, got it stickered and stacked waiting for some dry weather to take a look at it

I scored some Celtis a few years back and bandsawed it into small slabs. It had a strong yellow colour when freshly cut, and smelt awful. The colour faded to drab white with no interesting grain visible, and was quite hard after a few years seasoning, which surprised me, as it seemed soft and pithy at first. Big downside was the movement, warped and cupped like crazy, but didn't split!
I deemed it too hard for carving and took little interest in it, but Wendy (RufflyRustic) took some off my hands and used a cupped piece to make a beautiful box lid. I think she is one fan of the stuff.

Cheers