Standing dead Elm

[PatM]

Elm is said to be very durable if kept constantly wet and the fact that this tree was actually growing out of a tiny raised lump IN water may be advantageous.

[Marc St Louis]

I have cut 2 trees that were dead.  One was a HHB that had been dead for many years but was hung up off the ground.  Most of it was firewood but I did actually make a bow out of it that I still have.  The other was an Elm that had been chopped down near a stream by some malfaisant.  It had landed partially in the stream and was still trying to sprout branches.  The wood actually turned out to be some of the best Elm I ever cut

[Eric Krewson]

Here is one cut from the failed standing osage tree, there were 3 more similar cuts, like I said, it was a monster.

[PatM]

Interesting that you had that experience with Osage. If it is cut and left for years it seems to fare better than if it just dies.

[George Tsoukalas]

Osage and BL are different. They may be used if standing dead.
Have fun, PatM.
Jawge

[blackhawk]

IMO Eric's experience is in a teeny tiny itsy bitsy minority...myself and whole lot of others have used standing dead and downed osage with just as good a success as live cut wood. And IMHO discussing standing dead or downed osage is irrelevant here. Not even in the same ballpark.

We have a lot of elm in my area...but its a disease prone tree here,and not too many make it past 8" diameter..not saying there isn't any that don't,but more so die off than before they reach a more mature status. And here once its dead or down it rots and detiorates very quickly.

Are you going to try and use the outermost ring(ring under the bark)? Or chase down a couple rings to better your odds of having good useable wood?

[PatM]

More than likely I was going to sinew the wood  so I would  just decrown it . Have to go back and check the ring size and see if ring chasing is something I'd want to do.
 Elm was obliterated up here too and most of it doesn't make it far but there is a database up here where they have located large trees past a certain diameter and monitor them for resistance and attempt to breed resistant varieties from them.
 There is in fact one very large tree close by.
 I know  how prone it is to rotting but it is the fact that this tree  is right on the cusp of being salvageable that is making me want to go to heroic measures. It is as straight and uniform as a PVC  sewer pipe. Doesn't smell much better than one in use either. 

[occupant]

I have made 5 or 6 from standing and fallen dead elm that the bark had fallen off. Some had been dead for 15 years. If big enough around you can go through the spongy stuff and get to decent wood, the only drawback is that it was probably dutch elm that killed it and may have bug hole bored through it to varies degrees. Other than that I have made them from dead elm into the 70lb range.

[Eric Krewson]

Plenty of wonderful dead osage out there, perfect for bows, this tree was a rare exception.

[JackCrafty]

I've made a walking stick out of dead standing elm about 12 years ago.  It is still very strong but it has many checks in the wood.  Very small hairline cracks all up and down the stick.  It was fine for the first four years and then it began to crack.

[mikekeswick]

I'd made a mini scaled down bow. About 16 inches long. You'll be able to dry a small piece in no time at all. I pretty much always do this with any new species/questionable wood.

[Richard B]

+1 Made a bow from some elm that had been standing dead and had signs of dutch elm disease (bug marks and discoloration below bark). Cleaned off about 4 rings from the surface and made a good bow out of it. Also gave myself some confidence that it would be OK by making an 18" mini bow from it first.

[PatM]

Gaining confidence  that this piece is salvageable.  Thanks all for sharing your experiences.

[PatM]

Finally retrieved this piece of wood and peeled the bark off to take a better look. The outside of the actual wood is basically in three separate states right now. One side looks pretty normal and the others  are in various stages of degradation. I took a hatchet and chopped off the outside of the worst looking side and just a few rings down the wood appears fine and sweet smelling again.
  So I think with some decrowning or ring chasing it should be salvageable.
 Here's some pics: This  is the good side
 The transition between the good side and where the discoloration starts:

 

 And the  outside chopped away to sound looking wood:


 

[Springbuck]

  I work elm a LOT, as much as all other woods combined.   I also vote to try it, but I will say that elm seems to lose it's hardness long before it looses it's toughness as it decomposes.  Like, I mean I have seen it completely useless, but it would fold instead of breaking.

 Another thing is that elm actually seems to always be full of stuff that eats it.  I have cut, roughed out, and left bowstaves of red and American elm in my garage, dry and clean over a couple months, and then had TINY grubs drill TINY holes all through it when I debarked it.  In fact, even barked staves succumb if I leave it long enough.   Pick it up, tap one end on the floor, and a cloud of fine wooddust (and beetlegrub poop) shakes out.

I bet money it's infected with those, because they seem to live in the bark and get active as soon as the wood dies.   So before the eggs hatch or the grubs grow, rough that stuff out and spray it or heat treat it to kill em.  I have actually shot in a bow once, left it a few weeks before final heat treating or sanding and finishing, and come back to have it literally delaminate between the summer rings. ALL the winter growth had been eaten by bugs, and the separated layers were covered with tiny squiggles.

Anyway, point is, it's all about how far gone the tree was, but jump on some preventative measures while drying it, then see what you got.  Straight, healthy, knot free elm is a joy to work with.