Thread: Elm

Hi Bob

It is a long time since I used any elm, and I have absolutely no experience of it in milling terms. I do however remember it being a beautiful timber, if a bit difficult to work due to the interlocking grain. It used to be the standard timber for coffins where I did my apprenticeship.

If you have more than you need I would be happy to take some off your hands.

Philip.

I've milled and used a bit of elm, lovely timber to work with IMO and finishes nicely.

Must ask you though, what is end reared? Can't say I've heard that one before. I've always stacked and stickered as usual.

At a guess I'd say stood upright on it's end



Pete

Thanks for the comments on elm. It sounds as if I should try cutting a few slabs before it all goes for firewood.

Pete is right, end rearing is stacking on end. I have read of it being used for one of the English timbers, but it may not have been elm. All references I can find suggest conventional stacking and stickering.

No way would you get the timber mixed up visually, but you may have been thinking of Sycamore.

Philip

If it turns out that the timber is not particularly attractive then it would probably make very good rasp/file/chisel handles, given your comments about not splitting.

Ya can't burn it!

Originally Posted by HuonPhil

Hi Bob

It is a long time since I used any elm, and I have absolutely no experience of it in milling terms. I do however remember it being a beautiful timber, if a bit difficult to work due to the interlocking grain. It used to be the standard timber for coffins where I did my apprenticeship.

If you have more than you need I would be happy to take some off your hands.

Philip.

Elm is a very variable timber. Sometimes very plain and others quite decorative. Nice timber to work and stable when dry. Popular furniture timber in Europe. I have cut and used quite a bit of it.
The term end rearing refers to the fresh sawn timber being stood on end against a wall etc. A spacer block is located close to the top and bottom of the slab and the next piece placed against the spacers and so on. The reason for this is to prevent sticker shadow caused by mold developing between board and sticker while the timber is still wet. The timber is only left raised for about a week to allow initial drying and then re stacked with stickers in the conventional manner.

I find end rearing most species(slabs) works well,and fast too...gravity drags the moisture downward,resulting in the piece seasoning much faster..i use this technique often,and for much longer than a week,with success!..MM

Yes, end rearing does give much quicker drying and works well on thicker material in humid conditions. Would be interesting to know what the moisture reading was over the length of the slab. You would think it would be higher towards the bottom end.

Originally Posted by rustynail

. You would think it would be higher towards the bottom end.

I think that would be the case rustynail..MM

That'll explain why I don't know of it as we don't generally as a rule, have high humidity down here

It's not a commonly used method of drying in Australia.

Elm is well worth trying for furniture, I'm using some at the moment grown here in NZ. I'm not sure which elm species I have tough I assume it would be European as well. I found these few pages on elm from FWW interesting.

Wood - Google Books

Elm makes for TERRIFIC bows. Both bows made from one piece of timber, and laminations.

Have you milled the timber yet? The roundbacks or flitches or whatever they're known as would be valued by bowmakers (like me).

Dave