Giant English Elm Tree Question

Bill Grumbine

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252
Location
Kutztown PA
Greetings all

A tree trimmer friend of mine just called to ask me a question which I am passing on to the group. He has been asked to bid on the removal of a very large English elm tree. His size comment was that he would need a 6' bar on his saw to get through the bottom of the stump. Apparently this tree is on some sort of register and dates back to the War Between the States. He called to ask me if there was some way to research the tree for economic viability. He does not want to just cut this thing up and heat the house with it. He would much rather see the wood go to some good use, preferably lumber, although I suspect there will be turning blanks aplenty for those who desire them.

If anyone here has any ideas on how to research this thing, I would be interested to hear them.

Thanks.

Bill
 
bill i aint got he right spellin but there is a society calle d arbotum or somehtinglike that has records of all the old trees and where they are located try searching for record sized trees or aged trees national geographic possibly.

bill, they have state and us groups. look up arborists.
 
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Was it the Sam Houston tree that died a few years ago, and they sold wood blanks from it?

Seems like maybe something like this could be done with the elm. Probably needs some more research on the history of it.
 
Everything I know comes from Google (or Beverly Hillbillies).

Here's a link to the official Arboretum of PA. If it's listed somewhere, they should know about it.

Morris Arboretum

In my area dutch elm disease has wiped out most of our elms. One town, Truro, has left the trees on site and commissioned carvers to make sculptures of them. They're kinda generic figures - the miner, the hockey player, the policeman. Quite charming to see.

Independant chainsaw carvers in other areas of the province have done similar carvings.
 
OOPS missed the point guys.

He wants to know what to do with it to turn it into something useful. If he slabs it or turns it into lumber will someone BUY it???:wave:
 
OOPS missed the point guys.

He wants to know what to do with it to turn it into something useful. If he slabs it or turns it into lumber will someone BUY it???:wave:

Yes, it's a fairly high value wood. It's used in all sorts of furniture - turned objects... and it was THE wood for coffins for hundreds of years. :) Nice wide boards, split resistant, slow to rot.

Cut it and they will come...
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. I am just an agent of information at this point, and he may not even do the job. Politics enters into it as much as anything. He doesn't want to have to deal with a bunch of tree hugging whackos if he does get the job.

I was picking up some wood from him on Monday at a college, and he was telling me about the time campus security had to forcibly remove a student from a dead tree so they could cut it down. The kid was incensed that they could be so callous as to remove a dead tree! :huh: On the particular day that I was there, the crew was being cursed from one of the women's dorms for being so rude as to run chainsaws at 10:00 AM. But these are spoiled rich brats of spoiled rich parents.

Bill
 
I've built a number of projects from elm. Beautiful cathedral-arch grain patterns and nice to work with. Only drawback: it's not very dimensionally-stable and it tends to bend and twist during the drying process, and even a bit more afterwards. Still, that hasn't stopped me from making furniture pieces from the wood.

Cheers,

Kevin
 

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Hi Bill;
Response #8 sounds like a situation near here, in Berkeley, CA that has made a lot of news. Students living in the old Oak trees to save them from convcerting the grounds to a sports center.

That Elm would probably cost a ton to have a tree service take it down and then have a sawyer prep it for sale, including turning blanks. What would the owner do with the stump?
I'd be curious if the owner, or the removal service thinks they can make a couple $$ by selling the wood off to woodworkers, woodturners, clubs,etc.
Just thinking, um..., I mean, writing outloud :huh:

Mike
 
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