I had narrow A. elm stave and decided to do a short, narrow double curved recurve bendy handle project. 54" long, 1.25 inches wide. Elm steams nice and I steamed in a recurve on one end real nice. Didn't add enough water to put (apparently) on second curve, turned attention away. When I checked it, water had boiled away a while before and tip was scorched. I wondered how much, touched it with my finger tip and 6" evaporated and blew away.
Now, I like to take something positive away from every experience. Went to break the bow to use as kindling. Foot against it backwards (ie foot against back) and it bend all the way around tip to tip and didn't break. I'll never worry too much about elm breaking again - as long as I don't burn it up.
Dave