Replies

1. 
   woodrae | Mar 18, 2007 09:40pm | #1

   Tom—

   I’ll jump in here as someone who has worked a bit of elm and knows several furniture makers who use the stuff on a regular basis.

   First off, elm is a lovely hardwood with a beautiful honey color that only improves with age. No need to stain or otherwise alter the wood’s natural color; use it as is and enjoy its warm yellow-brown tones. When plainsawn, elm has a very strong grain pattern, similar to plainsawn oak. This striking patterning will greatly affect the look of anything you make with it, so plan accordingly with your designs.

   Elm is a very tough wood, much tougher than most domestic hardwoods. It is a dense, heavy wood with strong, stringy fibers that interlock. This makes cutting it more of a chore than most hardwoods, such as other domestics like walnut, cherry and even the oaks. However, as long as your cutters are sharp (jointer and planer blades; tablesaw blades; router bits; handplane blades; handsaws, etc.) you’ll do fine. Just plan on working a little harder to mill, cut joinery and hand-plane surfaces.

   Its very strength makes elm a great choice for projects that require strength. For example, traditionally it’s been used for seats in plank-style chairs (similar to Windsor-chair type construction) because it holds details very well and aids in keeping joints together, such as tapered, through tenons in chair seats. It is also very resistant to water and rot, making it a good choice for outdoor projects, such as patio furniture. Back in the day, elm was readily available and used in abundance for millwork, such as for house trim and flooring, similar to how red oak is used today. That’s why you’ll see elm lining the interiors of many older eastern homes, as it was a very common—and very big—tree throughout the eastern part of the US, typically planted as a shade tree within the confines of small towns and parks. With the advent of Dutch elm disease, most of these stately trees were gone by the end of the 60s.

   Because of the open pores on elm, it’s probably best to use some sort of penetrating finish, such as a wipe-on varnish, as opposed to film finishes such as lacquers or polyurethanes. You would have to do a lot of grain filling on elm to achieve a glass-smooth piano-type finish, so a simple wipe-on finish may be your best bet.

   If your wood has been air-dried and then stored in a barn, I would plan on bringing it into the shop and letting it acclimate a few weeks before starting a project or doing any millwork. This will give the wood a chance to either take on or release moisture until it balances out with your shop’s relative humidity level. You can monitor it with a moisture meter; when the MC (moisture content) of the wood starts reading the same every day, your wood has acclimated to the shop’s environment and is ready to be worked.

   Be mindful that elm is not known to be particularly stable. You may experience some twisting and general warping when you split it into smaller parts, such as when ripping boards apart on the tablesaw. The simple solution is to cut parts a bit oversize, and plan on re-jointing or re-truing edges before milling to final dimensions. Good luck with a gorgeous wood.

   --Andy Rae

   
   

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   Edited 3/20/2007 4:16 pm ET by woodrae

1. 
   ajewoodwork | Mar 19, 2007 04:04pm | #2

   Thanks much I appreciate the help  Tom Butler

2. 
   Bob_Van_Dyke | Mar 20, 2007 04:48pm | #3

   Sorry I can't help you on this- I have never used Elm. But I see that Andy has done a great job answering your question. Thanks Andy
   Bob Van Dyke