Sometimes the log gods smile on you

American Elm "Ulmus Americana"

Ulmus Americana was once a prominent icon of the American forest. However, after the arrival of Dutch Elm disease in 1930, the species declined to almost non-existent. With over 12 diseases and pests that target it specifically, it's faded from the American lumber market.

For those who visit our lumberyard, the lone tree along the lane as you pull in is actually an American Elm.

While the color is not as vibrant as Red Slippery Elm, it is an amazing material to work with. With ring porous interlocking grain, it was once prized for things like hockey sticks and canes. The Forest Products Laboratory claimed that with a support strap, a 1” thick piece could be bent to a 1.7” radius, so I decided to try it.

This past spring, we were fortunate enough to find 2,000 bdft of perfectly straight and clear logs. Well, actually, our great supplier, Michael, found them. Michael’s decades of log-buying experience and deep network of contacts never disappoints. This is again an example in running a business of how vital it is to build a network of people who are passionate about doing good work in their field and are trustworthy.

We sawed these logs specifically for straight-grain chair stock in 8/4 and 4/4. This is a once-in-5-year event for us to find American elm this nice, and that is after much hard searching with different log buyers in different states. We decided to offer about 1/3 of this material for sale in rough-sawn. The remainder, we will be doing some limited-run chair kits this fall. If you would like rough material, send us an email, and we are happy to put it together for you. The 8/4 will be $8.00 a bdft, and the 4/4 $7.00

For me, I set some green stock back to build a Boggs 6 slat rocker from it just because I can.