Seasoned Elm Worth It?

[SidneyME]

I have first-hand experience of how rough elm is to split and burn (tried it in our woodstove last winter and I had to run the stove wide open). We're getting a Thermo Control boiler for this winter and I'm wondering if the low BTU value of elm is going to be a problem. I've got a 150 yr. old giant lying on the ground about 20 yards from my woodpile, and it would be a shame to waste it.

 

[pybyr]

10+ years ago I helped cut one of those elms to length for an elderly gent, and then ripped it, instead of splitting it, into manageable sections. Seemed wetter than if it'd been laying in a pond.... I think elm might be OK if you can dry it, but
I am not sure how, or how long, one would need to take to dry it.

 

[WoodNotOil]

I burn elm all winter long and it works fine. The best thing to do is to cut it all up to length and not split anything yet. The upper part of the tree will be pretty dry and just stack and cover the trunk pieces and they should dry out soon. Split them when they are dry. If it has been down a while, it may be drier than you think. I like to mix the elm with some ash or some hardwood. We have several groves of elm on our property and they supply a lot of free standing firewood due to Dutch Elm Disease. Fortunately, most of it is small enough I don't have to split it. Elm has a little lower btu output than other harder woods, but it is still higher than a lot of softwoods.

 

[penfrydd]

I'd save a few big logs from the butt for use a splitting blocks, when using an axe or maul. Other than that, my memory was that I'd never seen more creosote than came from elm, except perhaps from American chestnut. But with gasification, that shouldn't be an issue. I'm surprised folks are saying that it is wet if it's standing dead. My experience is that it's pretty much ready to burn the year after it fails to leaf out.

 

[muncybob]

I don't understand why you would not split them to dry as compare to waiting for them to dry and then split. Doesn't wood dry faster if it is split?

 

[WoodNotOil]

I don't understand why you would not split them to dry as compare to waiting for them to dry and then split. Doesn't wood dry faster if it is split?

All I meant was that it can be harder to split when wet. Depending on how you are splitting it, that may or may not be an issue. You are right that it will dry faster split.

 

[pybyr]

I recall reading from what appeared to me at the time to be credible sources (I think it was a USDA forest service item on firewood?) that it's most important to cut logs to the final length as quickly as possible, and that if splitting has to wait, that's less urgent than the cutting to final length.
Apparently a lot more water exits- relatively speaking, and relatively quickly- from the _ends_ of the final-length logs, compared to the exposed edges once split. Which is not to say that splitting is unhelpful, or should be procrastinated- just that if you had to pick, cutting to final length is the thing to do at the earliest opportunity.

 

[Steamer]

I have cut and split lots of elm. Bought a farm and used elm exclusively in a wood furnace. Standing dead elm and partial dead elm. Took about 3 years @ 7 cord a year just to clean up dead elm. It does split better when dry and certainly if frozen it will also split better. But I can honestly say I do not miss splitting elm. Now the ash trees are drying from fungus and this is much more fun. Standing dead when the bark has fallen off it is so dry you can cut it and burn it right away.

 

[pybyr]

You have the emerald ash bark beetle in southern VT already? Yikes? I knew it'/s headed in this direction, but this is the first I'd heard of disease affecting ash in VT. I love cutting, splitting, and burning ash, but I really hate the thought of watching all the ash trees get wiped out.

 

[WoodNotOil]

Steamer - What fungus? Our Ash trees are fine up north in Vermont. I hope nothing is headed our way. I primarily burn elm and ash. I like to thin the ash groves after some hard frosts stop the sap running. The smaller and medium ash trees are dry enough to burn immediately even in a gasifier. The larger ones once split dry out very quickly.

 

[Steamer]

I was told about 15 years ago by a state forester as we walked my woodlot that a fungus was killing the ash trees. I don't recall if he named the fungus. It has been around a long time. It is strange as I have seen trees infected and it can take 5-10 years to totally kill a tree. Then there can be ash trees 100 feet away perfectly healthy. New trees growing fine. There is one large ash tree that has been infected for 10 years now and is still 2/3 alive. I actually have some nice elm trees coming along that are 15 years old. It is a shame as even sugar maples do not live to be as large as they used to. Overall time seems to fix a lot of problems in the forest.