Maybe it's in how I grow it ???

[OnTheRoad]

Will it has been my experience... standing-dead elm has always been noticeably harder and denser (heavier) than any cut green. Just my opinion, but I believe it's the way the stuff shrinks-up when standing with the bark on... I think gravity pushes the water down and out through the roots, and with the bark still on it the wood is sealed and has no choice but to shrink and compress. Eventually that releases the bark and it falls away. It may not change the overall BTU's (per pound) in the wood, but it sure in hell improves the burning and coaling properties of it.

There's a bit of a trick to know when to cut it... pretty much just after most of the bark falls, signalling the wood has shrunk up tight, dense and hard. Cut it too soon and it will still be sort'a "green" and won't shrink-up the same. Wait too long and it gets a bit punky, especially in the base and round the crotches. It easy to tell if you caught it at the perfect time... smack two splits together and they'll make a high-pitch ringing sound, almost metallic-like. I've never heard that sound from any elm cut green, ya' just get a wooden thud-like sound, even after sittin' split in stacks for a couple years.
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Are you a bit superstitious?

 

[Red Elm]

I have burned ALOT of red elm over the years. I agree that dead standing, is far superior to any green cut red elm. I wont waste the gas mix to cut siberian or chinese elm for firewood. My opinion of american, or white as we call it locally, is that it makes good shoulder wood. Many years ago I filled the wood room with red elm, I came home the next afternoon to the house about 85* and my wife sitting on the couch so happy the house was warm. I looked through the glass in the door of the stove to see she had FILLED it w dead red elm! The coal bed was white hot!!! Didnt take me long to shut the air down, fast! We burn mostly hedge now. No comparison, hedge will burn just as hot, MUCH longer . Hedge seasoned 3-4 years makes the "tink" sound when knocked together. I have seen and/or heard of many stoves being ruined with hedge, never one with red elm. If you've never burned a cord or two of really dry hedge, you have no idea how hot it burns. I wouldnt be suprised if the fires of Hell were fueled w hedge. I do think red elm coals down beautifully.

 

[Red Elm]

70 years ago my dad and grandpa logged and ran a sawmill, the red and american elm wood was valued for hog gates as it was tough and would hold up to the abuse. A really good live red elm log is highly valued these days for machinery trailer floors for tracked equipment, its grain structure holds up to the abuse of the tracks. Ive cut several for portable sawmill guys cutting out trailer flooring.

Dale, have you ever found ceramic like clinkers in the ashes after burning red elm. I read somewhere that red elm has some silica like compound in its wood, when you burn it the silica compound melts from the heat and puddles in the bottom of stove. Dont know if thats true, but I've found alot of those clinkers over the years.

 

[OnTheRoad]

I have burned ALOT of red elm over the years. I agree that dead standing, is far superior to any green cut red elm. I wont waste the gas mix to cut siberian or chinese elm for firewood. My opinion of american, or white as we call it locally, is that it makes good shoulder wood. Many years ago I filled the wood room with red elm, I came home the next afternoon to the house about 85* and my wife sitting on the couch so happy the house was warm. I looked through the glass in the door of the stove to see she had FILLED it w dead red elm! The coal bed was white hot!!! Didnt take me long to shut the air down, fast! We burn mostly hedge now. No comparison, hedge will burn just as hot, MUCH longer . Hedge seasoned 3-4 years makes the "tink" sound when knocked together. I have seen and/or heard of many stoves being ruined with hedge, never one with red elm. If you've never burned a cord or two of really dry hedge, you have no idea how hot it burns. I wouldnt be suprised if the fires of Hell were fueled w hedge. I do think red elm coals down beautifully.

I am originally from the middle of Kansas, in farm country. There were miles and miles of Hedge rows, but corporate "farms" find them inconvenient (they weren't here when the Hedges were planted and don't know why it was done).

Anyway, Osage Orange aka Hedge is still plentiful and my dad has a 1/2 mile stretch that's 30' thick at his business and I have access to several other rows. As firewood, there is no equal. Well seasoned hedge puts off a scary amount of heat. Loaded with seasoned hedge, with a good air supply, the stove will glow and the chimney will creak. It will burn a house down left uncontrolled, and does regularly.

In my home town few have interest in Hedge as a firewood because many houses are lost to it's use. The problem is not the Hedge, but the stigma remains. All the better for me because I have people asking me to take down their Hedge when they find out I am taking them.

 

[Whitespider]

Are you a bit superstitious?

I guess the sarcasm (I guessin' that's how the question is framed) is lost on me... I don't get where it's pointing??
But taking the question as serious... no, I'm not at all superstitious, why do you ask??
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[Bushmans]

Did you find out why they all died?

Not sure why they died. Spidey's reasoning is probably my best guess although I don't remember when I pruned them. It was over a three year period. It used to be one solid fence row of debris, brambles, poison ivy and other greenery.
I didn't prune that much off the trees but I did do a lot of invasive work along the root zone. Ripping out the unwanted plant life, removing large piles of concrete and construction debris that were covering the roots. I also sprayed a lot of herbicide and I burned all of the small stuff that was on the ground. Sort of a controlled wildfire, burning leaves, sticks and whatever would combust. The few maples in the row seem to be unaffected so I'm leaning towards DED.

 

[firebrick43]

70 years ago my dad and grandpa logged and ran a sawmill, the red and american elm wood was valued for hog gates as it was tough and would hold up to the abuse. A really good live red elm log is highly valued these days for machinery trailer floors for tracked equipment, its grain structure holds up to the abuse of the tracks. Ive cut several for portable sawmill guys cutting out trailer flooring.

Dale, have you ever found ceramic like clinkers in the ashes after burning red elm. I read somewhere that red elm has some silica like compound in its wood, when you burn it the silica compound melts from the heat and puddles in the bottom of stove. Dont know if thats true, but I've found alot of those clinkers over the years.

I have burned two red elms this year, and yes they formed clinkers, in fact the ash was hard in one large 2" thick sheet in the bottom of the stove. Took some doing to break it up. But it seem to produce less ash than the cherry that makes up the bulk of my firewood so I could go a two days before cleaning the stove out.

One of the red elms was actually a sawmill reject. Years ago its owner took it to the mill and they cut several times into it about two or three feet. Said and appeared to that the band saw(woodmizer LT40 if I remember correctly) would not track straight at all. Oddly when I bucked it, the log was the straightest grained and easy splitting elm that I have ever seen. The sawyer while being a difficult, opinionated, and crotchety old bastard has sawn logs for me and everything came out ok but I wasn't there when the elm was tried so I am just going off the lousy memory of my 70 year old neighbor. I need some trailer flooring. Most around here is white oak. Is they elm as rot resistant???

 

[Red Elm]

Yes, I have found red elm to be more resistant to rot when used as trailer flooring than is most oak.

 

[mallardman]

Red and American elm are my favorite firewood. Burn hot, long, and unlike some it catches easy.


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[Toddppm]

Dale, have you ever found ceramic like clinkers in the ashes after burning red elm. I read somewhere that red elm has some silica like compound in its wood, when you burn it the silica compound melts from the heat and puddles in the bottom of stove. Dont know if thats true, but I've found alot of those clinkers over the years.

I burned a bunch of Red Elm this winter and was getting bright blue clinkers groups that almost looked like somehow a blue tarp had gotten burned up in there. Pretty neat, I had set some on the shelf by my stove and was going to take a picture but had been so busy with the snow I went and looked after a few weeks and the color had gone out of them????
This is the 1rst time I've saved any of this wood, not sure I'd bother again as I get Oak and other better woods regularly. Had to cleanup and get rid of most of the bark that sloughed off, kind of a pain to split, burns hot but turns to coals too fast and leave a TON of ash!

 

[Red Elm]

I've never had any other colored clinkers than pale beige.

 

[3000 FPS]

Well you guys all have me beat. I do not think such a thing exist here where I am. The best I can hope for is Siberian elm.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Reckon we've had dissimilar acquaintances with it then.

I see this quite a bit on this board. People who are experts post observations that are polar opposite from my observations.

 

[Whitespider]

The best I can hope for is Siberian elm.

I'm callin' BS ‼
The last couple times I looked at Wyoming, which was from standing in South Dakota and Nebraska... I didn't see any friggin' trees ‼
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[3000 FPS]

I'm callin' BS ‼
The last couple times I looked at Wyoming, which was from standing in South Dakota and Nebraska... I didn't see any friggin' trees ‼
*

What are you talking about. You mean to tell me you cannot see all those trees on the horizon.

 

[Ronaldo]

What are you talking about. You mean to tell me you cannot see all those trees on the horizon.

View attachment 341869

Oh yes I see um, I see um. I lived between Douglas and Gillette for awhile and my view of the horizon was about the same.

 

[yodan]

I burned a bunch of Red Elm this winter and was getting bright blue clinkers groups that almost looked like somehow a blue tarp had gotten burned up in there. Pretty neat, I had set some on the shelf by my stove and was going to take a picture but had been so busy with the snow I went and looked after a few weeks and the color had gone out of them????
This is the 1rst time I've saved any of this wood, not sure I'd bother again as I get Oak and other better woods regularly. Had to cleanup and get rid of most of the bark that sloughed off, kind of a pain to split, burns hot but turns to coals too fast and leave a TON of ash!

All last week I burned large round pieces of Elm. Every morning when I push the ash to the back of the stove and then rake the live coals forward, I'd first have to break through a layer of clinker. So I pulled some of the larger pieces out and let them cool. Later when I looked at them I found that they had all these areas of a sort of turquoise blue. I'm wondering what the blue stuff is. My initial thinking is that it might be copper. I have a Quadrafire and the main draft enters the stove just inside the door. You can see the coals there through the Glass door and it's always white hot with the air coming in. That is also where I usually find most of the blue clinker. So, I'm thinking the blue clinker is a product of high heat and Elm firewood. I'm saving some small chunks of blue clinker and hope to find a chemist who can tell me what it is. Does anyone have a Mass Atomic Spectrometer I can borrow?