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Author Topic: Cutting Elm  (Read 6426 times)

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Offline Okie

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Cutting Elm
« on: December 29, 2008, 10:31:28 pm »
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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Offline bcbull

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2008, 11:31:13 pm »
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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Offline dismount

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2008, 11:56:10 pm »
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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Badbill

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2008, 12:52:27 am »
Hey! You speak German too! LOL ;D
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Offline sailordad

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2008, 12:56:27 am »
Quote from: bcbull on December 29, 2008, 11:31:13 pm
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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Offline M-P

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2008, 01:32:42 am »
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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Offline DanaM

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2008, 06:41:15 am »
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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Offline ricktrojanowski

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2008, 07:26:25 am »
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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Offline Okie

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2008, 09:06:18 am »
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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Offline DanaM

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2008, 10:20:26 am »
Sounds like a plan :)
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Offline Marc St Louis

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2008, 10:40:04 am »
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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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2008, 10:46:11 am »
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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Offline Badger

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2008, 10:46:50 am »
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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Offline Okie

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2008, 11:04:58 am »
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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Offline Marc St Louis

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Re: Cutting Elm
« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2008, 04:26:36 pm »
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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