elm is a fantastic wood. The species of choice for cart wheel hubs because it will easily withstand a dozen or more mortices chopped into it without breaking apart. And was the species of choice for traditional chair seats, again because it will happily withstand all the round mortices for the spindles legs and arms without splitting. It improves as it ages and wears to a fantastic smooth velvet patina when clothing etc polishes it. And elm was always used to make the massive cylinders for village water pumps, and water pipes. I believe some pipes were dug up in London Thames that were 400 years old. If its water logged it will survive a long time, much like alder wood
Love this. Found this video because it was a top referrer for my Elm Kitchen table build video. Glad someone else appreciates the beauty of elm. I can add that really wide elm needs a lot of weight when drying because it wants to twist a lot. You earned a sub and looking forward to more videos.
Great info. I live in western Colorado where Siberian Elm is generally regarded as a weed, and people give the firewood away for free. I've made a few hammer and axe handles out of it with good results. Also a cutting board (though our area isn't too affected by dutch elm disease). I have a few elm bowstaves but haven't finished them yet. It is an underappreciated wood I think.
Thanks for that Szilard, very informative; I have to say that your command of the English language is astonishing mate, thanks for coming to the UK, this country needs people like you, please don’t leave after Brexit, and keep the videos coming...👍👍👍👍👍....
My grandfather said elmwood was favored for horse stalls since they could take a pounding from rambunctious horses kicking the walls for the fun of it. I can't remember what he said about horses chewing (cribbing) on the wood which some horses really enjoy out of boredom. The worst are called stump-suckers. A friend of mine had a horse operation near us. He had a horse that really like cribbing. He chewed a 1x10" board down until there was only about 1 1/2" left on the bottom edge. A huge U shape.
I just sliced tow 1 ft sections of tree on my bandsaw yesterday. I didn’t know what kind of tree the wood came from. It sliced up nicely on the bandsaw and showed a beautiful grain pattern. I finally identified the wood as elm. I got 6 bd ft total when I stacked it up. Now I wait a year for it to dry. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful wood grain. Here in southeast Ohio farmers like red elm for there hay wagons because it is strong because of the interlocking grain. It will flex but not break.
Am very jealous of those beautiful long boards. I'm working with British (actually Scottish) elm and its characteristics are, sadly, different from those you describe. It's very slow to dry and very, very prone to cracking and splitting. I've tried different drying methods but it's basically just luck it seems. I really love the smell of elm wood; to me it smells of fresh leather, and I associate it with childhood memories of wood fires in cottages and farmhouses. Thanks for posting.
It has been a long time since I've been able to visit your channel, it is nice to see changes in the shop and what a store of wood you've collected. As always, I learned something today. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the video. I am cutting up a fallen Elm right now in Texas and will mill it into boards but did not know how they would be for woodworking. Keep em coming.
I have the joy of living in Melbourne now allegedly home to the oldest stands of elm in parks and gardens in the world. Dutch elm disease has not had an impact here...thankfully. The tree is not native though, so it’s s rarely cut down....except when a freeway needs to go through. Thanks for a great informative video.
Jesse Evett thank you! I just feel very uncomfortable with that for some reason! Also I think there are some quality issues as well! There is a lot of improvement needs to be made!
Szilard Pinter ..... That's to be expected. It new, I know you probably feel a little nervous. But you provided meaningful information in a clear and methodical manner. I certainly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing and give it time, you are going to be great.
Your about says you are in UK? What is your 1st language, French? Here in the midwest of the US (Illinois, Indiana) I see red elm(aka slippery elm) most often. I've milled a half a dozen of them. I like it. Stinks when you mill it.
That is one really pretty piece of timber ! We do not have that species as a local timber in Australia, but it is nice to know a little bit about it, thank you. Our local woods here are very nice but we do not get the choices that you have. From Townsville, North Queensland, Australia we are going into winter, or what we have of it here, glad to see you get some good weather where you are at the present. No rain here and a "cold" 9 deg Celsius this morning, almost summer in the UK ???
Gary Rogers thank you very much for your comment appreciate it! The weather pretty good at the moment, but we just had the heaviest rain of the year few days ago! Then the humidity was really high in the air for few days. That was ideal for rapid mould growth on places where I didn’t want to see it! Cheers Szilárd
im surprised there is any elm left to saw in the UK, its lovely wood i believe a reasonable investment in a cnc tabletop machine and you could really up your income doing custom v-carved signs szilard, its an outlay, but v carving text once you have vectric software is one of the easiest things you can do, any font, any size. i havent room sadly for a sawmill but im excited to start with my cnc.
While I'm not a biologist, I know a thing or two about biology and it's quite unlikely the dutch elm disease fungus has any interaction with human biology. There are quite literally thousands of fungi spores on your skin, in your gut, on your eyes, everywhere and 99.99% of them don't have any interaction with our biology and of those that do interact even less have any negative effect. Fungi evolve for specific environments or plant life and fungi that affect wildly different life forms tend not to have any cross-interaction. Some do, like ergot, but generally not. I have made quite a few things with it, including chopping boards. I really recommend wet-sanding and finishing with danish or tung oil. It really sparkles, especially the burrs.
samthepoor ..... Do you have scientific research information or is that just an opinion. I think his caution is warranted in that he is providing public information. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Caution definitely warranted, blend the mycological facts I posted with his caution and a bit of personal research and an answer might become apparent.
@@jessjulian9458 You sound like an uneducated person asking for scientific validation of basic science. Elm may or may not be food safe, but it certainly has nothing to do with Dutch Elm disease. In addition to the points made, any fungus, bad or good, has long been dead after the tree has felled and dried. In the USA, the USDA standard for food safety requires proof that a product is unsafe before it can be labeled as such or banned. Obviously, that standard is good enough for you.
Very informative Szilard, thank you for sharing! I am refinishing an old table (2nd hand find) that I suspect to be made of elm, your video has beautiful shots of the wood grains which it helped me to better identify the wood type ;)
I just cleared a lot of elm trees more than 6' in diameter at chest height. I'll be getting some massive slabs out if these trees. I'm guessing at least 400 years old. Local wood, Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Great video! I’ve found some left over branches after they cut a sic elm down and I see dark brown stains in the endgrain. This is the effect from Dutch elm dicize. Do you know if this weakens the wood? I did a rip cut on one piece and it looked kind of cool on the face side.
I would like too order some wood from you in the future to make my dad a desk my mom a coffee table. And possibly a bookshelf it may cost too much to ship to the United states I'm not quite sure how shopping would effect the wood if it was sent on a ship actually I'm going to research that lol .. you have some very amazing peices in your collection
Thank you enjoyed the vid lots of info look forward to the next one. Have a word with Mick McManus to get this info on the group site as I think a lot of members would find it interesting if you can’t get a hold of Mick then ask one of the admin team
Hi, it's such beautiful-looking wood! What's that oil you used on it in the end of the video? Would you put a clear varnish on top of that oil as a finish? Thank you.
my monster elm is very vigorous......since it has been pruned during the grow season it has developed a huge amount of suckers, leading to developing "pins", volcano like bumps noticeable after debarking, it looks like dinosaur skin, I hope to carve some heads coming from the end of a 10 ft long burl x 24 " limb , this tree has so many burls the size of sleeping bags
There was an article in the U of Minnesota ag alumni magazine several years ago asking for locations ofmature elm trees that have shown signs of Dutch Elm and then recovered. They are looking for trees resistant to the disease. Here is a link for the ongoing project. We have several in our yard that are almost 50 years old. The other trees died in the 1970s all at once but these keep right on going. There are trees that seem to be resistant that drop seeds as well as the younger trees that die out at ten years old or so. They drop seeds first. Elm won't die out completely but the hit the trees have taken is brutal. trees.umn.edu/research-elm-project
Szilard, honestly. You are making a video series about tree species and their wood and you state right out that ur NOT interested in their technical and growth properties? Seriously?
First of all I must pinpoint that I think your your contribution is great; as an educational tool and documentation for many, also for yourself. When it comes to my comment I didn't want to sound negative, but it's just that I have been working with trees, their wood, uses and properties (and ecology and management which isn't the topic here) all over the world, from the Amazon to SE-Asia and ofc in Europe, for 45 yrs. It was long ago when I learned that all these properties are connected. Ofc you can say a lot about the wood properties when you compare wood densities, eg btw balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) and shihuahuaco (Dipterix micranta) with densities of +/- .14 and +/- .87 g/cm3, respectively. Denser woods are normally darker in color and are harder on your tools (I say generally). It is also valuable to know if the wood (from same species) came from a 30 meter giant tree or a young sapling. Wood properties often change with tree age. etc etc etc. PS1 World standard (ofc I exclude ancient US) for wood density is g/cm3. PS2 All species, when discussed like you do in this video series, should primarily be named with their scientific names and not just in generic terms. Even within close communities one species can have 3-4 terms. Including propper naming just adds more seriousness to your contribution. PS 3 Maybe some of us viewers are also interested in your notes/experiences on other wood properties such as sawing, nailing/boring, gluing, and other strengths and weaknesses.
Stiff Wood thank you! Appreciate your enthusiasm, and respect your knowledge! But the fact is that 98% of viewers will fall asleep half way through the video if I go over board, and flood them with information on that level. I’m trying to approach the subject from woodworking point of view. Also that was my first video of this kind, and I know it will take time and practice to get it right. Also contribution of viewers like you could help a lot, which is much appreciated. (Just your intro turned out to be a bit rough 😉) Best wishes Szilárd
Hi mate, firstly glad I just found your channel. Deffo going to subscribe and look at more of your content. Secondly I was going to ask a question about Elm. A few weeks ago I picked up a 2xm x 60cm slab of Elm that’s around 2” thick. It is showing around 15% moisture in the highest places in the middle. Those readings were using my meter with probes. Nearer the edges and the rest of the slab are about 5% to 8% moisture readings. The issue I have is that after sitting here for a few weeks the slab just began to form some white furry mold on the surface. It’s not the whole slab just one or two small patches but it’s like white furry mold. Do you (or anyone reading this) have any tips on what I can do about it? Also does anyone know why it would form a white furry mold as opposed to black mold etc.. It was supposed to be sanded down next week then oiled and put on to a cabinet that I just built. I thought it would make a nice looking top / work surface with some storage underneath.
elm is a fantastic wood. The species of choice for cart wheel hubs because it will easily withstand a dozen or more mortices chopped into it without breaking apart. And was the species of choice for traditional chair seats, again because it will happily withstand all the round mortices for the spindles legs and arms without splitting. It improves as it ages and wears to a fantastic smooth velvet patina when clothing etc polishes it. And elm was always used to make the massive cylinders for village water pumps, and water pipes. I believe some pipes were dug up in London Thames that were 400 years old. If its water logged it will survive a long time, much like alder wood
Love this. Found this video because it was a top referrer for my Elm Kitchen table build video. Glad someone else appreciates the beauty of elm. I can add that really wide elm needs a lot of weight when drying because it wants to twist a lot. You earned a sub and looking forward to more videos.
Great info. I live in western Colorado where Siberian Elm is generally regarded as a weed, and people give the firewood away for free. I've made a few hammer and axe handles out of it with good results. Also a cutting board (though our area isn't too affected by dutch elm disease). I have a few elm bowstaves but haven't finished them yet. It is an underappreciated wood I think.
Thanks for that Szilard, very informative; I have to say that your command of the English language is astonishing mate, thanks for coming to the UK, this country needs people like you, please don’t leave after Brexit, and keep the videos coming...👍👍👍👍👍....
Allen O'Rourke thanks Allan! Appreciate your support! 👍
Allen O'Rourke ..... I agree 100%, he is very good at everything that he does.
My grandfather said elmwood was favored for horse stalls since they could take a pounding from rambunctious horses kicking the walls for the fun of it. I can't remember what he said about horses chewing (cribbing) on the wood which some horses really enjoy out of boredom. The worst are called stump-suckers. A friend of mine had a horse operation near us. He had a horse that really like cribbing. He chewed a 1x10" board down until there was only about 1 1/2" left on the bottom edge. A huge U shape.
I just sliced tow 1 ft sections of tree on my bandsaw yesterday. I didn’t know what kind of tree the wood came from. It sliced up nicely on the bandsaw and showed a beautiful grain pattern. I finally identified the wood as elm. I got 6 bd ft total when I stacked it up. Now I wait a year for it to dry. Thanks for sharing.
That oil sure did bring out the beauty man. Stunning.
Beautiful wood grain. Here in southeast Ohio farmers like red elm for there hay wagons because it is strong because of the interlocking grain. It will flex but not break.
Great info Mr. Pinter...thanks so much...just picked up a truck load of air dried black walnut...and don't have a use for it...awesome wood!
Am very jealous of those beautiful long boards. I'm working with British (actually Scottish) elm and its characteristics are, sadly, different from those you describe. It's very slow to dry and very, very prone to cracking and splitting. I've tried different drying methods but it's basically just luck it seems.
I really love the smell of elm wood; to me it smells of fresh leather, and I associate it with childhood memories of wood fires in cottages and farmhouses.
Thanks for posting.
It has been a long time since I've been able to visit your channel, it is nice to see changes in the shop and what a store of wood you've collected. As always, I learned something today. Thanks for sharing!
Gord Roberts thank you Gord! I’m glad to see you here in the comment section!
Thanks for watching
Great info, just got an elm tree cut down in MJ backyard since it had stress from beetle bug and had fallen branches
Thank you for the video. I am cutting up a fallen Elm right now in Texas and will mill it into boards but did not know how they would be for woodworking. Keep em coming.
Thank you for teaching elm!
I have the joy of living in Melbourne now allegedly home to the oldest stands of elm in parks and gardens in the world. Dutch elm disease has not had an impact here...thankfully. The tree is not native though, so it’s s rarely cut down....except when a freeway needs to go through. Thanks for a great informative video.
Yes this is going to work, learning things I didn't know. Thank you for sharing.
Jesse Evett thank you! I just feel very uncomfortable with that for some reason! Also I think there are some quality issues as well! There is a lot of improvement needs to be made!
Szilard Pinter ..... That's to be expected. It new, I know you probably feel a little nervous. But you provided meaningful information in a clear and methodical manner. I certainly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing and give it time, you are going to be great.
Jesse Evett thanks Jesse! Appreciate that!
Excellent Szilard, look forward to seeing more!
RobJ Workshop thanks Rob!
Your about says you are in UK? What is your 1st language, French? Here in the midwest of the US (Illinois, Indiana) I see red elm(aka slippery elm) most often. I've milled a half a dozen of them. I like it. Stinks when you mill it.
That is one really pretty piece of timber ! We do not have that species as a local timber in Australia, but it is nice to know a little bit about it, thank you. Our local woods here are very nice but we do not get the choices that you have. From Townsville, North Queensland, Australia we are going into winter, or what we have of it here, glad to see you get some good weather where you are at the present. No rain here and a "cold" 9 deg Celsius this morning, almost summer in the UK ???
Gary Rogers thank you very much for your comment appreciate it!
The weather pretty good at the moment, but we just had the heaviest rain of the year few days ago! Then the humidity was really high in the air for few days. That was ideal for rapid mould growth on places where I didn’t want to see it!
Cheers Szilárd
The grain is beautiful
im surprised there is any elm left to saw in the UK, its lovely wood
i believe a reasonable investment in a cnc tabletop machine and you could really up your income doing custom v-carved signs szilard, its an outlay, but v carving text once you have vectric software is one of the easiest things you can do, any font, any size.
i havent room sadly for a sawmill but im excited to start with my cnc.
While I'm not a biologist, I know a thing or two about biology and it's quite unlikely the dutch elm disease fungus has any interaction with human biology. There are quite literally thousands of fungi spores on your skin, in your gut, on your eyes, everywhere and 99.99% of them don't have any interaction with our biology and of those that do interact even less have any negative effect. Fungi evolve for specific environments or plant life and fungi that affect wildly different life forms tend not to have any cross-interaction. Some do, like ergot, but generally not.
I have made quite a few things with it, including chopping boards. I really recommend wet-sanding and finishing with danish or tung oil. It really sparkles, especially the burrs.
samthepoor ..... Do you have scientific research information or is that just an opinion. I think his caution is warranted in that he is providing public information. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
samthepoor hi! Thank you very much for sharing all that! I didn’t know that stuff! Much appreciated!
Regards Szilárd
Caution definitely warranted, blend the mycological facts I posted with his caution and a bit of personal research and an answer might become apparent.
@@jessjulian9458 You sound like an uneducated person asking for scientific validation of basic science. Elm may or may not be food safe, but it certainly has nothing to do with Dutch Elm disease. In addition to the points made, any fungus, bad or good, has long been dead after the tree has felled and dried. In the USA, the USDA standard for food safety requires proof that a product is unsafe before it can be labeled as such or banned. Obviously, that standard is good enough for you.
Lovely wood. Thank you for the informative video.
Very informative Szilard, thank you for sharing! I am refinishing an old table (2nd hand find) that I suspect to be made of elm, your video has beautiful shots of the wood grains which it helped me to better identify the wood type ;)
Very interesting. I didn't know anything about elm before this. Cheers!
Rob Trautvetter - Takami Woodshop thank you for watching!
I just cleared a lot of elm trees more than 6' in diameter at chest height. I'll be getting some massive slabs out if these trees. I'm guessing at least 400 years old. Local wood, Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Awesome information, beautiful wood!
Dave Gower thank you!
Wish you weren't across The Pond! I love to turn some of your wood!
Outstanding Sir.
Very interesting! Please do more videos like this, if you find the time :-)
Great video! I’ve found some left over branches after they cut a sic elm down and I see dark brown stains in the endgrain. This is the effect from Dutch elm dicize. Do you know if this weakens the wood? I did a rip cut on one piece and it looked kind of cool on the face side.
Elm wood beautiful grain pattern.
I would like too order some wood from you in the future to make my dad a desk my mom a coffee table. And possibly a bookshelf it may cost too much to ship to the United states I'm not quite sure how shopping would effect the wood if it was sent on a ship actually I'm going to research that lol .. you have some very amazing peices in your collection
Szilard GREAT START TO NEW ADVENTURE
Douglas Mungham thank you!
Thank you enjoyed the vid lots of info look forward to the next one. Have a word with Mick McManus to get this info on the group site as I think a lot of members would find it interesting if you can’t get a hold of Mick then ask one of the admin team
Barneys Workshop thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I this the Woodworking UK group you saying?
Regards Szilárd
Yes the WWUK group
Pretty!
We just got some Elm for a desk. What oil would you recommend? We don't want to stain it just bring out dark grain.
I'm building a coffee table for my tech final and I'm thinking about using elm, can anyone suggest a finish that will bring it up dark?
I’m an amateur at milling in Kansas. I have tried my hand with American elm, but mine warped and cupped real bad. What’s the trick to minimize this?
Hi, it's such beautiful-looking wood! What's that oil you used on it in the end of the video? Would you put a clear varnish on top of that oil as a finish? Thank you.
If i want to buy a dining table, is elm better or mango?
I am curious what American Elm logs should cost.
Is this wood good to make furnitures? Does it break?
Thank you,
my monster elm is very vigorous......since it has been pruned during the grow season it has developed a huge amount of suckers, leading to developing "pins", volcano like bumps noticeable after debarking, it looks like dinosaur skin, I hope to carve some heads coming from the end of a 10 ft long burl x 24 " limb , this tree has so many burls the size of sleeping bags
I believe there is a university in Michigan that has bred an elm that is immune to the fungus.
Good information by the way. Really enjoyed it.
Thank you appreciate that!
Mallu place tamilnadu
There was an article in the U of Minnesota ag alumni magazine several years ago asking for locations ofmature elm trees that have shown signs of Dutch Elm and then recovered. They are looking for trees resistant to the disease. Here is a link for the ongoing project. We have several in our yard that are almost 50 years old. The other trees died in the 1970s all at once but these keep right on going. There are trees that seem to be resistant that drop seeds as well as the younger trees that die out at ten years old or so. They drop seeds first. Elm won't die out completely but the hit the trees have taken is brutal.
trees.umn.edu/research-elm-project
thank you
Elm is abundant in Kansas USA. I have made bowls out of elm. I do not like the smell of elm.
I could not hear what you were saying half the time. Your recording volume is too low.
no sound
can't hear you
Szilard, honestly. You are making a video series about tree species and their wood and you state right out that ur NOT interested in their technical and growth properties? Seriously?
Stiff Wood yes mate! Do you have any issue processing this information?
First of all I must pinpoint that I think your your contribution is great; as an educational tool and documentation for many, also for yourself.
When it comes to my comment I didn't want to sound negative, but it's just that I have been working with trees, their wood, uses and properties (and ecology and management which isn't the topic here) all over the world, from the Amazon to SE-Asia and ofc in Europe, for 45 yrs. It was long ago when I learned that all these properties are connected. Ofc you can say a lot about the wood properties when you compare wood densities, eg btw balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) and shihuahuaco (Dipterix micranta) with densities of +/- .14 and +/- .87 g/cm3, respectively. Denser woods are normally darker in color and are harder on your tools (I say generally). It is also valuable to know if the wood (from same species) came from a 30 meter giant tree or a young sapling. Wood properties often change with tree age. etc etc etc.
PS1 World standard (ofc I exclude ancient US) for wood density is g/cm3.
PS2 All species, when discussed like you do in this video series, should primarily be named with their scientific names and not just in generic terms. Even within close communities one species can have 3-4 terms. Including propper naming just adds more seriousness to your contribution.
PS 3 Maybe some of us viewers are also interested in your notes/experiences on other wood properties such as sawing, nailing/boring, gluing, and other strengths and weaknesses.
Stiff Wood thank you!
Appreciate your enthusiasm, and respect your knowledge!
But the fact is that 98% of viewers will fall asleep half way through the video if I go over board, and flood them with information on that level.
I’m trying to approach the subject from woodworking point of view.
Also that was my first video of this kind, and I know it will take time and practice to get it right.
Also contribution of viewers like you could help a lot, which is much appreciated. (Just your intro turned out to be a bit rough 😉)
Best wishes
Szilárd
My bad,,, and I look forward to the rest,,, Stiff
Hi mate, firstly glad I just found your channel. Deffo going to subscribe and look at more of your content.
Secondly I was going to ask a question about Elm. A few weeks ago I picked up a 2xm x 60cm slab of Elm that’s around 2” thick. It is showing around 15% moisture in the highest places in the middle. Those readings were using my meter with probes. Nearer the edges and the rest of the slab are about 5% to 8% moisture readings.
The issue I have is that after sitting here for a few weeks the slab just began to form some white furry mold on the surface. It’s not the whole slab just one or two small patches but it’s like white furry mold.
Do you (or anyone reading this) have any tips on what I can do about it? Also does anyone know why it would form a white furry mold as opposed to black mold etc..
It was supposed to be sanded down next week then oiled and put on to a cabinet that I just built. I thought it would make a nice looking top / work surface with some storage underneath.