Chinese elm
- Thread starter Welderman85
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Sawset
Minister of Fire
If you get it before wood decaying fungus sets in -
It's moderately heavy, dries down at an average rate, leaves an average amount of ash. It starts easy.
If it has started to decay, which can happen very quickly, judge whether it's even worth working with.
It can split easy, possibly if it's straight grained and also maybe if it's frozen solid.
Or it can split into a million strings that never seem to want to seperate.
Attached is a pc of straight grain smooth white oak, next to a lovely piece of miserable splitting elm.
It's moderately heavy, dries down at an average rate, leaves an average amount of ash. It starts easy.
If it has started to decay, which can happen very quickly, judge whether it's even worth working with.
It can split easy, possibly if it's straight grained and also maybe if it's frozen solid.
Or it can split into a million strings that never seem to want to seperate.
Attached is a pc of straight grain smooth white oak, next to a lovely piece of miserable splitting elm.
Attachments
![[Hearth.com] Chinese elm](/talk/data/attachments/254/254053-7c61d9d6de29f05b93a4a20eea0a53a1.jpg?hash=h1nVsdjbDE)
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
Tough as hell to split when green. It makes heat. It's pretty dense. If you don't mind splitting it, free is a great price.
CincyBurner
Minister of Fire
Much confusion between the two. Chinese elm: Siberian elm (U. pumila) ? OR lacebark elm aka Chinese elm (U. parvifolia) ?
https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=90
Probably doesn't matter that much for wood burners, but for landscape industry in past decades it's caused headaches (and lost $).
You probably have Siberian elm U. pumila, as lacebark elm has a very distinctive, beautiful exfoliating bark (It's also slower growing but not as hardy) and is less common.
Sometimes Siberian elm (U. pumila) can look a bit like red elm/ slippery elm U. rubra, but leaves smaller (and slippery elm leaves are scabrous (rough) on the top side). Look for characteristic signs of bacterial wet wood staining (white/ light patches dried slime flux ooze on bark), and characteristic stinky-ness. Siberian elm bark is grey with coarse furrows.
Siberian elm is weak-wooded; it's an introduced species that really has become invasive in much of US, especially urban areas, so there is always some Siberian elm turning up for wood scroungers after storms, and along utility trims.
I haven't (hand) split much of it, but sometimes decent sections are much easier to split than other elms.
It probably burns similarly to other elms ?
https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=90
Probably doesn't matter that much for wood burners, but for landscape industry in past decades it's caused headaches (and lost $).
You probably have Siberian elm U. pumila, as lacebark elm has a very distinctive, beautiful exfoliating bark (It's also slower growing but not as hardy) and is less common.
Sometimes Siberian elm (U. pumila) can look a bit like red elm/ slippery elm U. rubra, but leaves smaller (and slippery elm leaves are scabrous (rough) on the top side). Look for characteristic signs of bacterial wet wood staining (white/ light patches dried slime flux ooze on bark), and characteristic stinky-ness. Siberian elm bark is grey with coarse furrows.
Siberian elm is weak-wooded; it's an introduced species that really has become invasive in much of US, especially urban areas, so there is always some Siberian elm turning up for wood scroungers after storms, and along utility trims.
I haven't (hand) split much of it, but sometimes decent sections are much easier to split than other elms.
It probably burns similarly to other elms ?
I've burned plenty. Good stuff. Not sure about the picture above. My Ch. Elm does not ever appear that stringy! Maybe what I have always called Ch. Elm really isn't? I am actually working through a very large specimen in the back yard right now. Definitely hydraulic splitter material to be efficient. Hands down.
Sawset
Minister of Fire
American, Chinese, Siberian
Never looked into the differences. The trees we have in the woodlots and fencelines here continue to die off before the age of 15. There are what looks like Elm wind breaks nearby though, that have been there for ever. Need to take a closer look.
![[Hearth.com] Chinese elm](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/254/254128-81a3066a63cdd64de5680969c814ad1c.jpg?hash=jY5NiVferk "[Hearth.com] Chinese elm")
![[Hearth.com] Chinese elm](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/254/254129-cf63546e7d38f285fab4d19ae605717c.jpg?hash=Efs6YfDqhC "[Hearth.com] Chinese elm")
![[Hearth.com] Chinese elm](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/254/254130-fdd544e9853d3b933d704337f5951660.jpg?hash=kyu5J-g16p "[Hearth.com] Chinese elm")
Sawset
Minister of Fire
Open grown white oak can be as bad or worse. Every round can have a branch, and every branch could need to be ripped apart.
Attachments
![[Hearth.com] Chinese elm](/talk/data/attachments/254/254398-d2b5adc703469e52fceeb69ea8104dae.jpg?hash=heEQnZbgaE)
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
All I remember was helping my grandfather build a splitter to put on the back of a 194? Allis Chalmers. And how we spent more time bashing pieces off the wedge than splitting. Burned well though. I’d take for free.
