Elm for rifles?

[AVP]

Before anyone laughs or says better to use in the fireplace - which is probably the case - I am just curious.

I have cut a bunch of dead elms for firewood but also had boards and thicker slabs cut and put aside for some projects and desk I intended to build. They have some surprisingly nice grain. Just curious if anyone has built a gun with elm. If so, would you share some pics? Thanks.

[Stophel]

Elm was used commonly on Swedish guns.  Occasionally on English guns.  I do not know if any American elm wood is as good... probably "Rock Elm" is..  or rather, was, when it was still around.  If the piece of wood is large enough, and hard enough, it should serve well.  I'd be surprised to see a piece that was large enough.

Elm is nearly impossible to split.  It was used in chair seats and wagon hubs because of that.

[rich pierce]

When stained it would look like plain ash for the most part. Very hard to hand plane because if interlocking grain. It was very abundant as very large trees in colonial Northeast here but not seen as a stock wood so far as I know. Probably because prettier woods easier to work were readily available.

[Stophel]

[AVP]

I knew it was used in ship building due to it being somewhat flexible without breaking. And trust me, I have split enough to know its some hard stuff. But I have made some fairly nice small boxes, tool handles, and chests with quarter-sawn boards. Much nicer than I thought and the price was right given they were dead in my woods. These are slippery elm, Ulmas Rubra, but dont know if that’s much different than American elm or not in terms of grain structure or working with. Never dealt with American. But you’re right, it looks a bit like ash when stained but also super nice and mellow when buffed with beeswax/mineral oil. Thanks for the pics Stophel. I might just try it on a small schimmel-type squirrel rifle I am planning for my son’s first rifle

[Herb]

This is a .40 I built for Arn in barter for his building my wife's tea house.  A skilled woodworker, he wanted it built with Chinese Elm.





I don't remember what the other two are- but I built them!  The elm finished nicely.

[shifty]

  Herb, I really like that rifle.

[Bob Roller]

I have seen imported production muzzle loaders that look like pine so
why not try elm? It looks like Herb has proved that it can be used.
Bob Roller

[Herb]

If you left click a picture, it will enlarge.  A little + sign appears, left click that for an enlarged photo.  The dark stripes are porous grain that must be filled, but the other wood is dense.  Cottonwood can also have some impressive crotch grain.  I had an old double barreled shotgun from a farm sale in North Dakota that was stocked in cottonwood.  It can be very hard wood.  Arn made some very impressive tables with it.

[Daryl]

Cottonwood and Aspen are both low specific gravity hardwoods. Some are definitely harder than others.
I expect those that grow in dryer areas, grow more slowly and thus are harder.  Should be heavy compaction in
the trunks of larger trees 4'-5' in diameter, however there is usually a lot of heart rot & conk (rot) branch stubs.
Interesting rifle, Herb, indeed, very interesting.
Elm makes good bows, but perhaps there is a reason it is not used a lot, for gun stocks - kinda like Hickory?

[yulzari]

The Austrian military were fairly catholic in their acceptance of stock woods. I have seen a Werndl and a Mannlicher M1895 factory stocked in elm so European elm would appear to be an acceptable stock wood. I can't answer for American elm species.

[Clint]

Elm has been used traditionally for garboards (The lowest bottom plank) on ships because of it's size strength and rot resistance. Chairs were often made with pine seats, maple or birch legs and hickory or oak spindles. The point here is the wood choice in the old days was not arbitrary and had as much to do with the tools used to make the piece. I have only cut a small amount of elm and it did not inspire a lot of detail. It would make a great work bench and would last forever out doors. I would put elm into a category near to live oak for brute strength and reluctance to cooperate.
CW

[shifty]

   It also makes excellent laminations for Bow limbs.