Josh, have you made a little heat-tempering jig? Like the one Marc St Louis shows in his chapter in the Bilble? (there's a few pics of it in the oak bows' posts i made last summer) that way you can heat temper wood at a safe distance, hands-free. I think he uses elm almost exclusively, says he lives in a forest of the stuff. From what i can tell, elm is a premier wood for heat-treating and you don't have to worry about burning it.