Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Okie on December 29, 2008, 10:31:28 pm
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I'm going out Thursday to cut some 'sage and I've been eyeing an elm tree that was torn up by the ice storm we had last year. It is still alive but mangled. The trunk is very straight and about 12-14" in diameter and around 12 feet tall before any limbs. I've split a lot of elm firewood but never a log of elm. How hard will it be to split the log and should i wait till spring so I can peel the bark or should I treat it like 'sage? I'm not sure how my 'sage will take having whitewood stacked beside it. This will be my first venture into the whitewood world. Thanks for any help.
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haha how hard will it be to split elm haha ok ill be honest start ur wedges beat beat beat some more till ya pass out then when ya come to beat and beat some more pass put over and over yep that elms a killer to split have fun brock ;D
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Okie, I bashed my axe till it looked like a mushroom on a stick, so I snapped a chalk line and ran my skil saw to get a stave, and set the blade as deep as I could. I have several names for elm*%!!###%% just to name a few. Phil
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Hey! You speak German too! LOL ;D
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haha how hard will it be to split elm haha ok ill be honest start ur wedges beat beat beat some more till ya pass out then when ya come to beat and beat some more pass put over and over yep that elms a killer to split have fun brock ;D
;D ;D :D :D LMAO
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Okie, I cut one elm for staves a couple of years ago. It was only ~6 inches in diameter, but took me all afternoon and two trips into town for more wedges to get it split. I had people tell me afterwards that it would have worked a little faster if I had made some partial thickness cuts down the length of the log with a circular saw, first. I can barely imagine what it would take to split a 12" log. But, then again, elm makes some good bows. Ron
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Dang wish I was closer I would take that big bad elm off yer hands :) Good bow wood
and worth every drop of sweat it takes to split it. I wouldn't use a skil saw to kerf it,
dangerous doing that. At most I would just use your chainsaw to get a good start on one end, let the split follow the grain.
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If you can, I would wait so stripping the bark is easy. I messed with elm this summer and was amazed how simply the bark came off. Splitting was pretty tough. I used an axe that I hit with a hand sledge just to get a start. Then all wedges and big sledge from there on out.
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Thanks for the help guys. I think I'll wait till spring to bring it down so the bark peels easier. Dismount I'll invite you up for a "bash the elm" weekend.
Dana maybe I'll trade ya some okie elm for some maple, eh.
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Sounds like a plan :)
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I have cut and split a lot of Elm. Used to just bang away at it till it would come apart even split a 10" tree that way, I was much younger then and had more energy. Now I kerf with a circular saw. Works quite well but you do need a good carbide blade to make the job simpler.
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I used to let wood like elm and gum freeze hard in the winter to make it easier to split for firewood. In the case of gum, it would kind of "slab' off, not splitting true to the grain. Might be an interesting experiment w/ elm, notwithstanding the following.
On the other hand, at least in the case of hickory, as far as I'm concerned winter cut white wood is of little or no value because of the investment required to get the bark off.
Be very careful to get all the bark off your elm before you stack it even close to your osage. I don't know why, but I've had a couple or three instances where I stored green off the stump whitewood with osage and had a giant bug infestation. You do NOT want them lil bastids in yer stash, and no amount of pesticide will touch 'em once they get to eating.
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I buy my elm for Mark St Louis, Mark has a strong back and can split elm all day long, LOL. I salvaged a 10" log and beat and beat on it for days, I finaly had to saw it up to retrieve my wedges which were buried in it. Seriously, if you have a bad back I would not even attempt splitting elm. Steve
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Steve, I had back surgery in '05, but have healed quite well. I will definetly take it slow. Sounds like a job for my son. >:D
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Even with the wood kerfed you need to do a lot of pounding with wedges and hammer to get the staves. There is much less waste when you kerf.
Good one Steve :)
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Nobody has really said this but elm's interlocking grain means it doesn't really split per se. Rather, you spread it with a wedge or wedges, then cut the "stringers" of wood that hold the two parts together as far into the split as possible. Then you set another wedge. Basically you chop the freaking thing in half, using wedges to get "in there."
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Makes me want a piece of Elm Now! I'm so many bows behind, so much wood so little time! :(
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Well all this fuss over elm. I use 3/4 lag bolts driven into it with an impact wrench to split the stuff. Lot easier to pull the trigger than swing the hammer. Ron
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Well all this fuss over elm. I use 3/4 lag bolts driven into it with an impact wrench to split the stuff. Lot easier to pull the trigger than swing the hammer. Ron
Oh sure just ruin the fun Ronnie :D
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Ronnie, you're my hero! I've got a 1" impact... that should do the trick.
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Well all this fuss over elm. I use 3/4 lag bolts driven into it with an impact wrench to split the stuff. Lot easier to pull the trigger than swing the hammer. Ron
Oh sure just ruin the fun Ronnie :D
8) 8) ;D ::)
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I'll bring my mushroom on a stick, that ought to do it! Saw on you tube folks splitting a tree with black powder! There's some good times! ;D ;D Phil
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Phil, don't give me any idears >:D
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Steve, I had back surgery in '05, but have healed quite well. I will definetly take it slow. Sounds like a job for my son. >:D
...and a dozen of his friends! ;D
I've tried twice to split Elm. I'm not going to try that one again for a while.
Sean