First Elms staves, what's a black locust junkie got to know?

[huisme]

These were the only two staves I could save from a mostly rotten Elm that's been ~80' tall since before I can remember. Poor old thing just couldn't keep going in Washington, dropped a six ton "branch" on my car and from there we had it cut down by professionals to make sure it didn't hit the house. Had to go from both sides with the chainsaw, then roll to cut most of what the bar wouldn't reach, then wedge to pop the little square when we cut the rough and first round. The sapwood is solid, but you can tell the tree was dying when you cut into some of the heartwood

Several cords later and I get these two from the good side of a half-gnarly branch. Over 3" across their whole length, I'm thinking at least one is going to be my first molle in something besides BL, while I think I want to keep a row of pin-knots intact on a less levery design

Going to have to do a lot of lateral bending, probably mostly with steam, for the molle, while I might leave a lot of the character twists and turns for the recurve ~flatbow.