Elm Slab

custard · 30 Sep 2016

There were quite a few Wych Elms felled a couple of years ago by Edinburgh council in the grounds of Holyrood Palace. They're still popping up in a few timber yards around the country and they're well worth a look, they're "park grown" so they have the wild grain you normally associate with the English Elm that's now sadly almost unobtainable. I was tipped off about the arrival of a fresh boule (a full sawn log) so I went to take a look. The top board was astonishing, with a rich pommelle type figure that I've never seen before in Elm, unfortunately this incredible figure disappeared very quickly as I worked down through the stack.

Hopefully I'll find a customer for this as a waney edge table or desk top, it'd be a shame to cut it up.

wallace · 30 Sep 2016

How do you move these lumps? Have you got a lacky or an apprentice to help. Whats the plank on the right, is it yew. Do you ever do any work in laburnum, I think that's my favourite timber.

Random Orbital Bob · 30 Sep 2016

The board adjacent is definitely Yew, no question....and dam fine it is too

custard · 30 Sep 2016

wallace":th7hyhs5 said:
How do you move these lumps? Have you got a lacky or an apprentice to help. Whats the plank on the right, is it yew. Do you ever do any work in laburnum, I think that's my favourite timber.

At the moment I call in favours or buy in help for the odd hour here and there, but I'm chewing over the pros and cons of taking on an apprentice. The problem is that if I go that route I'd probably need a bigger workshop and larger capacity equipment...so I might be giving you a call Wallace about some of your monster lumps of iron!

Yes, it is Yew. It's the most black and white timber I know, everything about it is either wonderful or terrible, you never end up shrugging your shoulders after finishing a project in Yew and saying, "well that went okay". You either say "where can I find more of that fantastic stuff", or "never ever again"!

I'm with you regarding Laburnum, it is pretty special. And it's a bit like Yew in that it's not really a commercial timber so whenever you use it you know you've left High Street competition far behind. But Laburnum's reputation for toxicity makes me nervous, I'm pretty sure the scare stories are overstated, but "pretty sure" and "certain" aren't quite the same thing.