Tree hunting...a kill!

[paleryder]

Went tree hunting today. I'm wanting to do something other than board bows and I was given the opportunity to take a tree from some land in exchange for a bow. We went out a few weeks later than planned and some of the more interesting trees were already losing their leaves. The tree below was very tall and the leaves were way at the top; I could barely tell what they looked like. We found no nuts on the ground and the leaves were serrated. I guessed elm.



Cut a piece:



It took us a long time to split it out. The grain was super stringy. I broke my sledge hammer. The felled tree got caught in another tree. It was a comedy of errors. In the end, we split a portion of it. Below are the pics of what we split. We lost a lot of time and had to stop. The bark is left on at this point. They are 8+ feet long. about 12-13" wide and 5.5 -5.6" thick.



The smaller piece on the far left came off very strangely. I can probably get a bow out of it. It's pretty thin. I have some concerns that I hope you can help out.

                    1. I didn't debark it. Can it wait a while to do that? We've put it in a machine shed on some boards. At the latest, I plan on going back next weekend to debark and
                    finish splitting. If I need to, I can go debark it tomorrow night. Haven't worked with elm before so I'm a little nervous.

                    2. What's the best strategy for splitting these. I naturally want to maximize the number of staves but splitting this stuff is so difficult I'm afraid of
                    cutting it too close and having a chunk pulled out of a potential stave. Do i just split each of these halves? In thirds? In fourths?

This portion of the tree is just one of three possible retrievable sections. The rest of the tree is hanging in the forest. We're going to have to go out next Saturday and try and retrieve it. My friend is going to go out and coat the exposed tree tomorrow to help stop checking. Should get two more similar sections, if a little smaller and a little shorter, that is, if the tree is okay by next weekend. Thanks for you help.

Aidan

[Dakota Kid]

 I like to leave my staves 3-4" wide cause you can always remove extra wood if need be, it's hard to put it back on. I'd rather get two good bows than 4 that are to narrow. Barking should be easy enough for a week or two after cutting depending on humidity. It will be a bear to bark if it dries on there. The under bark from elm is good for cordage or weaving. I always clean mine up and save them rolled up in a zip lock. When I want to soften them back up for use I throw a damp rag in the plastic bag the night before an they're soft enough to work without cracking. 

You could use a band saw to quarter or third the half log at this point if you have access to one. If not, start your splits in the middle of the log and work out towards the ends. That helps quite a bit when trying to follow a line. I like to drive my hatchet about halfway first then run those out to the ends before I do the actual full depth split. It seems to help guide the actual split to some degree.

The rest of the log should be good for quite awhile hanging in the other tree as long as the cut end isn't in the dirt. I found use-able elm on top of a brush pile that had been there for almost a year. I had to follow the checks that had formed when I split it, but the interior wood looked fine minus 6" at either end of each log.

[paleryder]

Thank you, Dakota. I vaguely remember working on an elm stave like 20 years ago. At the time when I was working on the back, I wondered if I had actually gotten down to the wood or if I was working on the inner bark. I recall that it was rather dark. I'm assuming that the inner bark is that 1/4" or so later showing in the picture between the outer bark and what appears to be the sap wood. I was able to peel it off the small section were cut rather easily. Hope this happens next week.

[Dakota Kid]

The inner bark shouldn't be 1/4" thick unless maybe it's a slippery elm(which feels slick to the touch). The elm I'm familiar with(american) has an under bark 1/16" or 1/32" in thickness. It's basically the material the chunks of thick bark cling to. It should be stringy and fairly strong when pulled. If the outer bark is scrapped off it resembles long wide blades of grass like cattail or reeds have. I'm guessing by the pic it's that thin dark ring between the bark and the first light sapwood ring.

I'll see if I can find my stash and snap a pic of one of the rolls for you.

[Dakota Kid]

I need to thank you. I didn't dry my elm bark enough before packing. I should have thrown in a desiccant packet but didn't. It went moldy, but I caught it in time to save it. I'll post a pic when it looks less fuzzy.

[PlanB]

To get that hanger down, you'll probably need to pull the base out. That looks like a pretty good sized tree, might be tough to pull even with a tractor (what I use). That can be pretty dangerous. You need a long cable or chain. And you need to be well clear of it, because it can slide forward fast.

[paleryder]

Visited the log/tree again this weekend. The rest of the tree was pulled down and we split some more out. It appeared that the sections higher up in the tree had bugs. I noticed small holes all over the bark of these upper sections. The bark was riddled with the holes. This was not seen on the lower 9' section we took down and split earlier.  I peeled the bark back and the holes were in the sapwood. I chopped at the sapwood with my hatchet and the holes went down a ways. I finally got down to pristine sapwood. I figured that chasing the ring on many staves was more work than I was interested in doing so I abandoned the rest of the tree.

I am having a little difficulty getting the bark off. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Part of that brown part I mentioned earlier appeared to be lifting off the whiter sapwood. I put my hatchet in there and pried it off. It lifted but brought white sapwood with it. I'm going to have to go down a ring or so on that stave. Dakota Kid suggested the brown section was the latest sapwood. He may be right otherwise I doubt it would have lifted off the white sapwood with it. Not sure.. I do not believe this is slippery elm. I only have a couple of pictures to compare Slippery and American Elm and the bark on this tree looks more like American Elm.  Not sure the best way to get this bark off. Going to play with it more tomorrow.

I had to leave in the barn a good section spilt in half but not debarked. Won't be able to get to it until Thanksgiving weekend. Makes me nervous to leave it there but I was beat. FWIW.

[PatM]

 The sapwood is where it turns white. Don't complicate it beyond that. If you let the stave dry  the bark will pop free when you bend it.