Please keep posting updates on how your floor turns out. DURABILITY: Rated as non-resistant to heartwood decay, and classed as permeable to preservatives. With sharp cutters it works well. I evaluated the tree and realized that it would make excellent lumber. Elm Veneer, Flat Cut Red, has a moderately straight grain with nice cathedrals. We offer the highest quality Red Elm at deeply discounted pricing. I can't think of a single species that. I have no problems at all drying it, don't even really put any extra effort into restraining it while drying. Daren, I've got another strange suggestion since you threw out the regional difference issue. I also have cut White and red oak, black locust, cherry, hard maple, red cedar, ash, white pine, poplar and various species of bowl blanks for wood … American Red Elm Veneer is primarily found in North America and is sometimes also called Slippery Elm. Our priority is customer satisfaction. × Badger Hardwoods of Wisconsin, Ltd. is a thriving private Wisconsin hardwood lumber company offering mail order hardwoods and retail hardwoods. My latest try is ~70 bdft on the bottom of several hundred bdft of oak and 300 pounds of weight on top. Call Pat or Tom today to discuss your Red Elm options at 1-877-983-6367. It is moderately heavy, has high shock resistance, and … Once a great American utility-wood stable, obtaining long boards of American Elm, presently, can prove to be a most difficult task. Seems the cuts are a throw back to times when kiln drying caused a lot of case hardening. Rushton had found that the wood worked well for steam-bending, that it was very strong, and quite light. These are what we choose for the back posts and legs of our chairs. ... Wester Red Cedar is a very stable wood. A couple of times a year I would get a call from someone with an older chair who had a slat that needed to be replaced. Thank's for all the responses. Red Elm lumber can have a grain that is straight, but often has a grain that is interlocking. Wheelwrights fashioned wheel hubs from nothing but the rugged elm, and then used it to floor long-lasting wagon beds. The main employee of our Finish carpenter suggestes we consider making shallow 1/8-1/4 evey 6-8" cuts on the back side of the board before placement and then nailing with square headed nails and then running a belt sander over it prior finishing. The wood has a coarse texture. History in Woodworking Elm served as an important utility wood for a couple of centuries, with two unique attributes lending themselves to special applications: First, red elm’s split-resistant interlocking grain made it a prized wood for hoof-resistant barn floor planks. How's that for a response. We're thinking about milling 1x12 for old style "plank flooring" and want to gain insight and experience from those who have done or seen it used. It's commonly used in interior millwork, trim, mouldings and tongue and groove paneling. Well I dried it over the winter in a solar kiln with no real checking and minimal warpage, so I say go for it. From shop Woodum $ 20.00. Fine furnituremakers called on elm, too, but in the form of burl veneer from a species growing in Europe's Carpathian Mountains. Unlike its cousin, American elm, red elm is almost exclusively a forest tree. My personal experience with using it as flooring is zip. I have experimented with a couple of elms just to see how they air dry. Scott I didn't mean my "no response" to mean that "no one" had responded I meant it as no one (directly) had indicated they had used it or knew of it being used for flooring! These aesthetic qualities are what we look for when choosing the wood for our chair seats, arms and headboards. The Caucasian Elm, by contrast, has small green flowers that also emerge in spring. Both species have been impacted by Dutch elm disease but slippery elm has been more reduced by the elm bark beetle, Xanthogaleruc luteola. Mulberry is an example of a wood that sparks heavily. It can be stringy but still splits ok with a maul. Depending on the look and finish you want it may need to be planed, flattened, sanded, stained, and/or finished. I think its just used because of its predominance in the forest industry. They must be flexible, and never brittle. The Elmwood is the most popular choice for furniture making as it is widely used in contemporary furniture heritage manufacturing. Other woods have less figure, but have knot free, stronger grain. The flexibility and durability needs of this design have required us to delve deeply into the inherent qualities of various woods, and one thing is certain: all woods are not created equal. I, too, like how red elm looks and have plenty of it(slippery elm) available to me. i have/do have post's wherein there where no or limited responses though!! Elm's heartwood colors range from a muted tan, to light to medium reddish brown. Elm trees are commonly infected with Dutch elm disease, a fungal disease spread by elm bark beetles. "Say hello to my little friend" Macie Clark, Christmas 2010. Flowers may be hidden behind the leaves of the elm if the tree has already produced leaves, so look closely before deciding whether a tree is an elm … American elm has a strength (MOR) of 11,800 psi, while rock elm has a strength of 14,800. Both hard and soft elm types are available such as Cedar, winged, and rock elm falls under hard type whereas, as the American, Wych, English, Red, Dutch, etc. Badger Hardwoods offers reasonable pricing on quality hardwoods. Come join the discussion about shop safety, wood, carpentry, lumber, finishing, tools, machinery, woodworking related topics, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more! After 45 years of experimentation we have settled on a few select woods for our unique back support design, which we affectionately call “The Floating Back.”. The lumber nails, screws and glues well. I first heard of red elm in the 1970s when I read a book about Rushton canoes of upstate New York. This ring porous hardwood has a very conspicuous and strong grain pattern. This caught my eye way back then, because I was just beginning to develop our chairs’ back support system. Red Elm wood shavings and curls 12"x12"x8"inch volume / Diy gift box filler and package filling / DIY wedding rustic decor / craft supplies Woodum. This species is moderately hard. If you want to install flooring with red elm, Advantage Trim & Lumber is the perfect choice. The wood is also used for the hubs of wagon wheels, as it is very shock resistant owing to the interlocking grain. The wood of the hard elms (sometimes referred to as rock elm) generally range from 41 to 47 lbs/ft 3, while soft elms typically have a density from 35 to 38 lbs/ft 3. I also have cedar elm available to me, and it looks similar to red elm but is almost as hard as hickory. Red elm has a lively, decorative grain and a pale reddish-brown color interspersed with lovely light effects that result from wood’s medullary rays. Red Elm. This is rough sawn lumber. Soft elm includes American and slippery elm. It takes a lot of weight to keep them flat. First made by Henry Rushton in the 1880s, the canoes incorporated ½” by ½” strips of Ulmus rubra for the ribs of these hardy yet extremely light craft. The most basic division of elm species is between hard and soft elm. Twenty years after I started making Floating Back chairs, a few slats began to fail. Its sapwood is easy to distinguish, being considerably paler in color. It is great for cabinetry and woodworking. The wood of red elm is fairly easy to work, it nails, screws and glues well, and can be sanded and stained to a good finish. Comments: More commonly referred to as Slippery Elm in tree form (so named for its gelatinous inner bark), Ulmus rubra is typically called What ye all say to that idea??? Elm produces minimal sparks, so it’s actually a really good performer in this category and is not as likely to cause fire hazards. It was as strong as oak but much lighter in weight. View our current inventory of live edge American Elm slabs. I am going to muddy the water, and bring up something that may be just a crazy theory of mine/another topic of discussion. It's turning out to be my favorite wood (asthetically) . The grain can be straight, but is often interlocked. Red Elm is a Great Choice for Your Flooring Needs Red Elm will make any home look great and is a good choice for anyone considering flooring. I love the look of elm and find it worth the trouble to work with. Only 1 available and it's in 1 person's cart. My first try resulted in lots of short boards because of movement while drying. White Hard Maple. I mill a decent amount of red elm, I personally like it. This wood can be sanded, stained and polished to a fine finish. Apprentice Bobby Corns demonstrates how to remove a red elm backslat from Erickson Woodworking on Vimeo. Red elm is a medium density hardwood and it is known for making good firewood. Easier to machine than Pecan but much harder to dry. Lots of different opinions here: I've laid 4 elm floors now. Red Elm will be harder to machine than pine obviously but will stand up better to abuse. The wood is heavy, hard, and strong. Red Elm has a red-brown heartwood with light brown to grayish-white sapwood. Most importantly, these woods need to be resilient: that is, able to be bent over and over again, always returning to their original shape. Be like us and have a good cry then get over it. outdoor) and enclosed fireplaces. Since then, we’ve been encouraging clients to choose red elm for the back slats of their chairs whenever they order a chair in walnut or other woods that look good with the rich brown color of Ulmus rubra. We can also produce custom made dimension and mouldings to your specification. It is lower in BTU than common hardwoods like oaks and hickory, but it can put out good heat. Red Elm is regularly sold in the rough cut form. Some have gorgeous figure, some gorgeous color, some gorgeous grain. I have been interested in it since your original post. Red elm has a greyish white to light brown narrow sapwood, with heartwood that is reddish brown to dark brown in color. We passed the site where my great-grandfather, Anders Eriksson, homesteaded in 1878, and we kept going until we came to a large, dead red elm tree that Dewaine had noticed a month or two earlier. The wood, as 'red elm', is sometimes used to make bows for archery. I got no responses, in any case we're goin to give it a try, thought I'd post a couple of pictures that I feel exemplify why I am anxious to make it work. Each slab is surfaced and kiln-dried. My own kitchen is red elm. Red Elm (Ulmus Rubra) is a small to medium size tree that originated in North America. I have never personally milled any red/slippery elm, … The Chinese called elm yümu, and worked it into utilitarian furniture that would take abuse. So you get the good and bad with nearly every species. Red Elm wood is known for having sapwood that is white to light brown in color and heartwood that has a reddish brown to dark brown color. Everybody always comments on the elm... it's beautiful. Elm may be divided into two general classes, soft and hard, based on the weight and strength of the wood. Favorite Add to Hand turned red elm bowl franawoodturning. Also, it is for making good lumber. Red elm is a medium density wood. Red Elm is $2 per board foot. Thought is, the reliefs will give it room to express itself without major shifting, the square nails would grip it far better and the sanding would give it the old Barn look. :laughing: If you would spend as much time working in your shop as you do in here being. Claim your slab online or call (970) 213-8608 to purchase. Besides, it fades well and can last a long time. A year later, I made him a rocking chair out of this wood: the first chair made entirely of red elm (plus upholstery) that I’d ever made. Red Elm Recommended for experienced turners. I think it goes down much like oak. Thank's again for all the responses:thumbsup: Clarionflyer, your the first (directly) i've heard using Red Elm as flooring and it's great to hear you prefer it over other species for that. Red Elm is fairly easy to work with. English Elms sprout red flowers in small clusters early in spring. I first heard of red elm in the 1970s when I read a book about Rushton canoes of upstate New York. Specifically I had asked if anyone had experience or new first hand of it's use as flooring. It dries well with minimum degrade and little movement in performance. Splitting is not a problem in and of itself but red elm is prone to shake and sometimes it is hard to detect. Sapwood of elm is nearly white and heartwood light brown, often tinged with red. In the early 1980s my Uncle Dewaine took me for a drive heading south from his town in central Nebraska toward the Republican River. Red Elm Lumber. It's hard enough that's for sure. The bendability (MOE) is 1.4 million psi for American and 1.54 million psi for rock. Wood Vendors provides Red Elm in Select & Better as well as rustic grade lumber. A forum community dedicated to professional woodworkers and enthusiasts. Hans Wegner declared “a high quality wooden chair should give 50 years of daily use.” We subscribe to this famous Danish chair designer’s manifesto, and red elm helps us on our way. We all do Oscar. I wouldn't call the grain "subdued" but it is beautiful. JavaScript is disabled. In previous posts I have discussed the use of Red Elm as flooring. Comments: More commonly referred to as Slippery Elm in tree form (so named for its gelatinous inner bark), Ulmus rubra is typically called Red Elm in most woodworking applications, in reference to its reddish heartwood. Wood is typically burgundy or reddish-brown in color, with some tan colored sapwood. It's commonly used for furniture, tongue and groove paneling and flooring. I've also heard about it's "instability" and have noticed some cuppping and a little splitting with a stack previous cut and air dried but no more so than the Cherry I've cut. Wood that sparks heavily can create significant fire hazards, which can cause problems in both open-air (e.g. Look all the people who put red oak floors in their house don't even realize that IT is an unstable wood. This wood is hard to find in the quality we need for our specialized purpose, but we hoard a small supply and save it to furnish the comfort and durability that we expect each of our chairs to provide. http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f26/red-elm-8421/#post65806, http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Why_is_Wood_Flooring_Kerfed_on_the_Bottom_Face.html, VerticalScope Inc., 111 Peter, Suite 901, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2H1, Canada. First made by Henry Rushton in the 1880s, the canoes incorporated ½” by ½” strips of Ulmus rubra for the ribs of these hardy yet extremely light craft. Red Elm has an intense, rich grain structure and provides a lot of durability. The yoke of the Liberty Bell, a symbol of the independence of the United States, was made from slippery elm. Working Properties. by Eric Meier. We work with red elm quite a bit. Found primarily around the Great Lakes region, (and commonly referred to as slippery elm in tree form) this elegant domestic is a hardy survivor of the Dutch elm disease that wiped out millions of elms worldwide. Also, it is lower in BTU than common hardwoods such as oaks and hickory, but it can put out good heat. Ulmus rubra is closely related to European elm but the Old Country cousin does not have the intrinsic qualities that we are looking for in slat wood. Baseball Could I get opinions on using Red Elm for flooring?? Is Elm Wood Good For Furniture? I don't know why you can't use Red/Slippery Elm for flooring. They must be durable over decades of use. If you lived near the UP of Michigan (Crystal Falls) you could drop off a log 6" longer than the diameter, that would make a nice bowl. Rushton had found that the wood worked well for steam-bending, that it was very strong, and quite light. It dries well with minimum degrade and little movement. If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over? To function as required, the woods we choose for the flexible slats in our floating back design must satisfy a distinct set of demands. Ulmus rubra, or red elm (sometimes called slippery elm), is a little known tree that grows in the Eastern U.S. and the Midwest. It nails, screws, and glues well, and can be sanded and stained to a good finish. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. It takes stain and clear very nicely. But it was not until a year or two later in 1976—when I was working in a small riverboat town along the Missouri River— that I used some local red elm for chair parts. I just finished drying a load of American elm which was supposed to be unstable also. The wood of red elm is fairly easy to work. Slats of one species of wood, however, have never been returned in the more than 40 years that we have been making our Floating Back chairs: red elm. Again looking for your experience and/or feedback as I'm really behind the curve on this:yes::yes: Well I thought that since this will be an even 301 post's for me, I would step in with my opinion. My uncle agreed to take it to the local sawmill and have it cut into boards for me. Red Elm is similar to Grey Elm in that it can be sold as Soft. It coals up nicely and can last a long time. Hardwood has a moderately straight grain with nice cathedrals it fades well and last! 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