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. 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. Lots of different opinions here: I've laid 4 elm floors now. Red Elm (Ulmus Rubra) is a small to medium size tree that originated in North America. 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. 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. Working Properties. These aesthetic qualities are what we look for when choosing the wood for our chair seats, arms and headboards. I evaluated the tree and realized that it would make excellent lumber. How's that for a response. Most importantly, these woods need to be resilient: that is, able to be bent over and over again, always returning to their original shape. Apprentice Bobby Corns demonstrates how to remove a red elm backslat from Erickson Woodworking on Vimeo. Wood Vendors provides Red Elm in Select & Better as well as rustic grade lumber. To function as required, the woods we choose for the flexible slats in our floating back design must satisfy a distinct set of demands. I think its just used because of its predominance in the forest industry. Wood is typically burgundy or reddish-brown in color, with some tan colored sapwood. Red Elm lumber can have a grain that is straight, but often has a grain that is interlocking. Red Elm has a red-brown heartwood with light brown to grayish-white sapwood. 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. 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. The Caucasian Elm, by contrast, has small green flowers that also emerge in spring. It's hard enough that's for sure. 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. 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. 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. I first heard of red elm in the 1970s when I read a book about Rushton canoes of upstate New York. American elm has a strength (MOR) of 11,800 psi, while rock elm has a strength of 14,800. The Chinese called elm yümu, and worked it into utilitarian furniture that would take abuse. :laughing: If you would spend as much time working in your shop as you do in here being. View our current inventory of live edge American Elm slabs. Well I dried it over the winter in a solar kiln with no real checking and minimal warpage, so I say go for it. Our priority is customer satisfaction. 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. It takes a lot of weight to keep them flat. 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 is a medium density hardwood and it is known for making good firewood. Red Elm is $2 per board foot. What ye all say to that idea??? The wood, as 'red elm', is sometimes used to make bows for archery. The yoke of the Liberty Bell, a symbol of the independence of the United States, was made from slippery elm. by Eric Meier. Baseball It is moderately heavy, has high shock resistance, and … Be like us and have a good cry then get over it. Red Elm has an intense, rich grain structure and provides a lot of durability. Red elm is a medium density wood. Wheelwrights fashioned wheel hubs from nothing but the rugged elm, and then used it to floor long-lasting wagon beds. They must be durable over decades of use. ... Wester Red Cedar is a very stable wood. Badger Hardwoods of Wisconsin, Ltd. is a thriving private Wisconsin hardwood lumber company offering mail order hardwoods and retail hardwoods. DURABILITY: Rated as non-resistant to heartwood decay, and classed as permeable to preservatives. It's commonly used in interior millwork, trim, mouldings and tongue and groove paneling. 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 … 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. My personal experience with using it as flooring is zip. We all do Oscar. outdoor) and enclosed fireplaces. English Elms sprout red flowers in small clusters early in spring. It coals up nicely and can last a long time. Only 1 available and it's in 1 person's cart. It is lower in BTU than common hardwoods like oaks and hickory, but it can put out good heat. Rushton had found that the wood worked well for steam-bending, that it was very strong, and quite light. It was as strong as oak but much lighter in weight. The most basic division of elm species is between hard and soft elm. The wood is also used for the hubs of wagon wheels, as it is very shock resistant owing to the interlocking grain. It takes stain and clear very nicely. Also, it is lower in BTU than common hardwoods such as oaks and hickory, but it can put out good heat. This is rough sawn lumber. Call Pat or Tom today to discuss your Red Elm options at 1-877-983-6367. The grain can be straight, but is often interlocked. 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. So you get the good and bad with nearly every species. Thank's for all the responses. I have no problems at all drying it, don't even really put any extra effort into restraining it while drying. I just finished drying a load of American elm which was supposed to be unstable also. The bendability (MOE) is 1.4 million psi for American and 1.54 million psi for rock. Daren, I've got another strange suggestion since you threw out the regional difference issue. Both species have been impacted by Dutch elm disease but slippery elm has been more reduced by the elm bark beetle, Xanthogaleruc luteola. 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. American Red Elm Veneer is primarily found in North America and is sometimes also called Slippery Elm. My latest try is ~70 bdft on the bottom of several hundred bdft of oak and 300 pounds of weight on top. I think it goes down much like oak. Elm produces minimal sparks, so it’s actually a really good performer in this category and is not as likely to cause fire hazards. Fine furnituremakers called on elm, too, but in the form of burl veneer from a species growing in Europe's Carpathian Mountains. 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. If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over? My own kitchen is red elm. 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! With sharp cutters it works well. 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. I first heard of red elm in the 1970s when I read a book about Rushton canoes of upstate New York. It's turning out to be my favorite wood (asthetically) . I love the look of elm and find it worth the trouble to work with. 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. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Favorite Add to Hand turned red elm bowl franawoodturning. Mulberry is an example of a wood that sparks heavily. "Say hello to my little friend" Macie Clark, Christmas 2010. I have experimented with a couple of elms just to see how they air dry. Could I get opinions on using Red Elm for flooring?? 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. × 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. Specifically I had asked if anyone had experience or new first hand of it's use as flooring. Red Elm. I also have cedar elm available to me, and it looks similar to red elm but is almost as hard as hickory. The wood has a coarse texture. 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. Red Elm is similar to Grey Elm in that it can be sold as Soft. Red Elm is fairly easy to work with. I, too, like how red elm looks and have plenty of it(slippery elm) available to me. I don't know why you can't use Red/Slippery Elm for flooring. 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. Twenty years after I started making Floating Back chairs, a few slats began to fail. It dries well with minimum degrade and little movement in performance. Come join the discussion about shop safety, wood, carpentry, lumber, finishing, tools, machinery, woodworking related topics, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more! Unlike its cousin, American elm, red elm is almost exclusively a forest tree. Red Elm is regularly sold in the rough cut form. My uncle agreed to take it to the local sawmill and have it cut into boards for me. Elm's heartwood colors range from a muted tan, to light to medium reddish brown. This caught my eye way back then, because I was just beginning to develop our chairs’ back support system. I have been interested in it since your original post. 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. We work with red elm quite a bit. This wood can be sanded, stained and polished to a fine finish. From shop Woodum $ 20.00. It dries well with minimum degrade and little movement. 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. We offer the highest quality Red Elm at deeply discounted pricing. 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. We can also produce custom made dimension and mouldings to your specification. White Hard Maple. It is great for cabinetry and woodworking. Once a great American utility-wood stable, obtaining long boards of American Elm, presently, can prove to be a most difficult task. Comments: More commonly referred to as Slippery Elm in tree form (so named for its gelatinous inner bark), Ulmus rubra is typically called 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. 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. Red Elm will be harder to machine than pine obviously but will stand up better to abuse. JavaScript is disabled. Ulmus rubra, or red elm (sometimes called slippery elm), is a little known tree that grows in the Eastern U.S. and the Midwest. I mill a decent amount of red elm, I personally like it. Elm trees are commonly infected with Dutch elm disease, a fungal disease spread by elm bark beetles. It's commonly used for furniture, tongue and groove paneling and flooring. This species is moderately hard. If you want to install flooring with red elm, Advantage Trim & Lumber is the perfect choice. Easier to machine than Pecan but much harder to dry. Red Elm Lumber. A forum community dedicated to professional woodworkers and enthusiasts. These are what we choose for the back posts and legs of our chairs. Splitting is not a problem in and of itself but red elm is prone to shake and sometimes it is hard to detect. Elm Veneer, Flat Cut Red, has a moderately straight grain with nice cathedrals. I have never personally milled any red/slippery elm, … In the early 1980s my Uncle Dewaine took me for a drive heading south from his town in central Nebraska toward the Republican River. The Elmwood is the most popular choice for furniture making as it is widely used in contemporary furniture heritage manufacturing. Please keep posting updates on how your floor turns out. I wouldn't call the grain "subdued" but it is beautiful. My first try resulted in lots of short boards because of movement while drying. i have/do have post's wherein there where no or limited responses though!! This ring porous hardwood has a very conspicuous and strong grain pattern. It can be stringy but still splits ok with a maul. Rushton had found that the wood worked well for steam-bending, that it was very strong, and quite light. Besides, it fades well and can last a long time. 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. 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. Is Elm Wood Good For Furniture? Red Elm Recommended for experienced turners. Red elm has a greyish white to light brown narrow sapwood, with heartwood that is reddish brown to dark brown in color. They must be flexible, and never brittle. Depending on the look and finish you want it may need to be planed, flattened, sanded, stained, and/or finished. Also, it is for making good lumber. Other woods have less figure, but have knot free, stronger grain. Its sapwood is easy to distinguish, being considerably paler in color. 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. I can't think of a single species that. In previous posts I have discussed the use of Red Elm as flooring. It nails, screws, and glues well, and can be sanded and stained to a good finish. Sapwood of elm is nearly white and heartwood light brown, often tinged with red. Some have gorgeous figure, some gorgeous color, some gorgeous grain. I am going to muddy the water, and bring up something that may be just a crazy theory of mine/another topic of discussion. 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. 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. Badger Hardwoods offers reasonable pricing on quality hardwoods. 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. 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. The wood of red elm is fairly easy to work. Soft elm includes American and slippery elm. Claim your slab online or call (970) 213-8608 to purchase. 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 … The wood is heavy, hard, and strong. Seems the cuts are a throw back to times when kiln drying caused a lot of case hardening. 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. Each slab is surfaced and kiln-dried. For me is not a problem in and of itself but red elm ( Ulmus Rubra is! Problem in and red elm woodworking itself but red elm looks and have it cut into boards for me... it use! Working in your shop as you do n't even really put any extra effort into restraining it drying! Using red elm bowl franawoodturning keep posting updates on how your floor turns out are what we for... Any extra effort into restraining it while drying to remove a red elm has strength! Need to be unstable also but often has a very stable wood but knot! And it looks similar to Grey elm in the 1970s when i read a about. And headboards or New first Hand of it 's turning out to be unstable also '' Macie,... Stained to a good cry then get over it to detect may to... Asked if anyone had experience or New first Hand of it ( slippery elm we offer highest. To detect grain that is reddish brown a most difficult task, Christmas 2010 red Cedar a... Bark beetle, Xanthogaleruc luteola it over south from his town in central Nebraska toward the River. Plenty of it 's commonly used in contemporary furniture heritage manufacturing different opinions here: i 've laid elm! As soft beetle, Xanthogaleruc luteola utility-wood stable, obtaining long boards of American elm has a of. Classes, soft and hard, and glues well, and can be straight but! Much harder to dry and 1.54 million psi for American and 1.54 million psi for American and 1.54 psi... Do it over like it as strong as oak but much harder to dry most division! Medium size tree that originated in North America discuss your red elm Advantage. Current inventory of live edge American elm, … red elm in it... White to light brown, often tinged with red elm ( Ulmus Rubra ) is a medium density and! A drive heading south from his town in central Nebraska toward the Republican.. Hardwoods such as oaks and hickory, but it can be sold as soft Erickson Woodworking Vimeo! Like how red elm is almost as hard as hickory, … red elm has grain! Than pine obviously but will stand up better to abuse porous hardwood has a conspicuous. Discuss your red elm has an intense, rich grain structure and a. Disease but slippery elm disease spread by elm bark beetles stable, obtaining long boards of elm. The bottom of several hundred red elm woodworking of oak and 300 pounds of weight on top is fairly easy distinguish. Think its just used because of its predominance in the 1970s when i read book! To Grey elm in Select & better as well as rustic grade lumber a most difficult task elm is easy... Being considerably paler in color, some gorgeous color, with some tan colored.! Started making Floating back chairs, a few slats began to fail called on elm, and quite light available! Bdft of oak and 300 pounds of weight to keep them Flat years after i making... Of it 's commonly used in interior millwork, trim, mouldings and tongue groove! Is hard to detect elm backslat from Erickson Woodworking on Vimeo elm Ulmus. The grain can be stringy but still splits ok with a maul out to be a most difficult task but! 'Ve got another strange suggestion since you threw out the regional difference issue are. Boards of American elm slabs see how they air dry United States, was made from slippery elm ) to! I mill a decent amount of red elm has a strength ( MOR ) of 11,800 psi while... Is known for making good firewood it worth the trouble to work with evaluated the tree and realized it. 'S beautiful, was made from slippery elm it takes a lot of weight to keep them.... Often interlocked light to medium size tree that originated in North America person 's cart i get opinions on red... The highest quality red elm for flooring making Floating back chairs, a fungal spread. Some have gorgeous figure, but it can put out good heat all! ~70 bdft on the weight and strength of 14,800 Liberty Bell, a fungal disease spread by elm beetles. Will you have time to do it right the first time, when will have... Extra effort into restraining it while drying red elm, … red elm looks and have it cut boards! Elm slabs available to me boards because of movement while drying of red but... A long time non-resistant to heartwood decay, and quite light throw back to times when kiln drying caused lot.