I picked up some elm logs today.We identified it as rock elm.A good hard elm.
The difference between rock elm and winged elm the way I see it is that the rock elm ridges ridges on the twigs are not as tall as the winged elm ridges.They are more rounded.Very small amount of heartwood in the rock elm also and winged elm does'nt.
The heartwood is almost red cedar colored.
One of these days I'll show end cuts of all these elms.
Red elm[soft elm] has a lot of dark heartwood in it.With the chinese and american elm [soft elm]with no heartwood at all.
The soft elm seems to grow to a much larger trunk than the hard elm also.
All have the same type leaves and pretty much same looking type bark.Except that the larger soft elm when mature has thicker bark than the harder elm.The hard elm seems to be more of an understory type tree also.
Been looking into the difference in all this elm too as far as soft elm and hard elm.Logical reason as in all woods mostly.
The soft elm has more lines of pores [air and thicker early wood] in the earlywood than hard elm.Much like good and poor osage with it's rings.
Here's a fresh end cut of one of the staves.Very thin early wood there.When it dries and shrinks down the early wood will be even thinner yet then.
The hard elm grows much slower.Which to me is a factor in harder woods also as a general rule.These logs were mostly gun barrel straight.
The ends were painted.Seems this wood is getting harder and harder to find.I think all are susceptible to the dutch elm disease.
For me this hard elm is the cats' ass.It's tough stuff.I'm able to make my more extreme type profile bows from it without sacrificing any durability.
