Siberian Elm?

[Woody5506]

I have a big row of elms along my property line, which I think is Siberian Elm, a couple of which were trimmed/taken down a couple weeks ago (also some small oak and maple thrown in the pile.) I know it's not a top tier wood, but in the stove it will go. It always amazes me how much wood adds up when it's on the ground vs looking at it still standing and trying to gauge it.

Anyone else ever burn it?

 

[Dobish]

yep. its a good thing you have a splitter! i burn a ton of it, since I took down a lot on my property. I have noticed that it does a number on my chains, and it dries much quicker with the bark off!

 

[Dobish]

Also, be prepared to fight suckers for about 3 years, or grind the stumps. The ones on my property never seem to die!

 

[Woody5506]

the big chunks are super gnarly and stringy and the smaller/medium sized ones have been nice and straight grained, even easy to split with a maul. Overall they aren't that attractive of a tree and for now they provide a nice natural fence between the neighbors but everytime we get a good windy day, the yard is littered with little wiry twigs from them.

 

[Dobish]

the big chunks are super gnarly and stringy and the smaller/medium sized ones have been nice and straight grained, even easy to split with a maul. Overall they aren't that attractive of a tree and for now they provide a nice natural fence between the neighbors but everytime we get a good windy day, the yard is littered with little wiry twigs from them.

for a while before I had the splitter, I would separate the ones that I thought would be easy to split by hand, and those that weren't. I would ask my brother for help, and I would split the easy ones, then give him the hard ones and tell him he was terrible at splitting and needed more practice!

 

[Woody5506]

Lol, I take it you are the older brother??

 

[Dobish]

Lol, I take it you are the older brother??

Nope... but he taught me well

 

[Woody5506]

Even better

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Toughest stuff I've ever split. At my current age, I wouldn't do it again. Seemed to burn fine -- very dense.

 

[Sodbuster]

When ever I need to split the stuff, and I will, I always keep a sharp hatchet handy. Gnarly to split, but burns pretty good.

 

[Woody5506]

Still not as bad as the truck load of sycamore I got last year. I'll take more elm when available. Sycamore, never again.

 

[Sodbuster]

Try splitting Elm that has grown at the edge of a field and been wind whipped it's entire life, talk about stringy. Yikes.