Ulmus procera
English Elm
Rare salvaged hardwood with interlocked grain, wild figure, and exceptional steam-bending behaviour. Hard-won material with genuine craft heritage.
- Cultivada y aprovechada en Europa.
- Grupo botánico. Las maderas blandas proceden de coníferas y las duras, de árboles frondosos.
- Familia botánica a la que pertenece la especie.
Avísame cuando llegueEspecie de referencia. Ahora mismo no hay piezas en stock.
¿Es adecuada para tu proyecto?
Ideal para
- Live-edge dining and conference tables where wild figure is the point
- Windsor and stick chairs, seats, bows, and steam-bent components
- Curved joinery and laminated bent forms
- Chopping boards and food-contact serving pieces
- Decorative interior cladding and feature panels
- Turned bowls and hollow forms
No hay English Elm en la selección actual
Especies similares en stock
Ahora mismo no hay English Elm. Estas especies sirven para los mismos proyectos y tienen piezas disponibles.
Recibe avisos sobre English Elm
Te enviamos un correo cuando lleguen a KORENA nuevas tablas de English Elm. Cada pieza es única, por lo que conviene enterarse pronto.
Aspecto de la madera
Qué aspecto tiene
Heartwood ranges from light reddish-brown to a warmer chocolate tone, often with darker streaks and a greenish or olive cast in some boards. Sapwood is paler and clearly distinct. The grain is interlocked rather than straight, which produces a wild, partridge-like figure on flat-sawn faces and a ribbon stripe on quartered cuts. Texture is coarse and open-pored. Burr and crotch sections show some of the most dramatic figure of any European hardwood.
- Reddish-brown to warm chocolate heartwood
- Occasional olive or greenish cast
- Pale, clearly distinct sapwood
- Darker streaks and mineral lines common
- Burr sections show dense, swirling figure
- Interlocked grain, coarse texture.
Cómo trabajarla
Cómo trabajarla
Interlocked grain is the defining challenge. Plane with very sharp blades, take light cuts, and reduce cutter angles where possible, a 20 degree bevel-up plane or a high-angle bench plane (50–55 degrees) controls tearout well. Finish with a card scraper rather than fighting the planer. Sawing and routing are reasonable with sharp tooling, but expect to climb-cut on figured sections. Turning is enjoyable. Glue-up and screwing are straightforward. Steam-bending is where elm is unmatched: Windsor-chair seats and bow-backs are traditionally elm for good reason, and tight radii hold without splitting.
Acabado
The open, coarse pores benefit from grain filler if you want a glass-smooth surface; left unfilled, the texture reads as honest and tactile. Hard-wax oils and natural oils warm the colour and bring out the figure without flattening it. Water-based finishes keep the tone cooler and more contemporary. Sand methodically through the grits, interlocked grain can leave fine scratches if you skip steps. Test your finish on offcuts, as colour shift can be noticeable.
Secado
Elm has a reputation for being awkward to dry. Tangential movement is high relative to radial, and boards can twist, cup, or distort if rushed or poorly stickered. Slow, careful drying with consistent stickering and weight on the stack pays off. Once stable at service moisture content, it behaves well in interior conditions. Acclimatise boards in the workshop before final dimensioning.
¿Cuánto se moverá?
La madera se hincha y se contrae a lo ancho cuando el aire gana o pierde humedad. Calcula el movimiento estacional de un tablero de English Elm antes de diseñar las fijaciones.
Movimiento estacional previsto
unos 9,1 mm
Fija el tablero con lengüetas o soportes ranurados, no con cola ni tornillos apretados.
Modelo de contracción lineal: ancho × (contracción ÷ 28 % de saturación de la fibra) × variación estacional de humedad. Usa una contracción tangencial del 8 % para English Elm. Es una estimación para planificar, no una garantía.
Cuánto cuesta
Seguridad y abastecimiento
- Cultivada y aprovechada en Europa.
- Estado en la Lista Roja de la UICN: evaluación mundial de conservación de esta especie.
Elm dust is a known sensitiser and can cause respiratory and skin irritation with repeated exposure. All hardwood dust is classified IARC Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans), so use proper extraction at the source, an FFP3 mask for sanding and routing, and keep workshop surfaces clean. The wood itself is safe for food-contact applications such as chopping boards and serving pieces once finished with a food-safe oil.
Leer la guía completaNotas detalladas sobre el dibujo, el cambio de color, el trabajo y la estabilidad.
What English Elm actually is#
Ulmus procera is defined by one structural property: its grain interlocks. Fibres run in alternating directions rather than parallel, layer by layer through the wood.
That single fact explains both why elm is prized and why it is difficult.
It is prized because interlocked grain resists splitting almost completely. A Windsor chair seat is bored with a dozen mortices close together and then has legs and a back driven into them; in almost any other timber it would split between the holes. Elm does not. The same property made it the traditional timber for wheel hubs, which take spokes radially under load, and for chopping blocks that are struck repeatedly.
It is difficult because the same reversing grain tears out under a plane, every few millimetres, in both directions.
The availability situation#
Dutch elm disease killed most mature elms across Europe from the 1960s onward, and the effect on supply was severe enough that a generation of makers stopped specifying it.
The IUCN lists Ulmus procera as Data Deficient, meaning there is insufficient information for a formal assessment rather than that the species is secure.
Elm has not disappeared. It regenerates vigorously from root suckers, and those regrowth trees reach modest size before the disease reaches them again. Standing dead timber and salvage continue to come to market.
Preguntas de compradores
Preguntas de compradores
Is elm still available after Dutch elm disease?
Yes, but the supply picture is unusual. Dutch elm disease killed most mature elms across Europe from the 1960s onward, and the IUCN lists Ulmus procera as Data Deficient. Trees still regenerate from suckers and reach modest size before the disease takes them again, and standing dead and salvaged timber continues to reach the market. Supply is real but irregular, and large clean boards are scarce.
Why is elm used for chair seats?
Interlocked grain. Elm fibres run in alternating directions, which makes the wood extremely resistant to splitting. That is exactly what a Windsor chair seat needs, because it is bored with many mortices close together and any other wood would split between them. The same property makes elm the traditional wood for wheel hubs and chopping blocks.
Is elm hard to plane?
Yes. The interlocked grain that stops it splitting also makes it tear out badly, because the grain direction reverses every few millimetres. Light cuts, very sharp tooling and a high angle plane or scraper for the final surface are essential. A helical cutterhead makes a large difference.
Can elm be used outdoors?
Propiedades mecánicas
Datos técnicos
Valores de referencia publicados. Cuando las fuentes discrepan, se muestra el intervalo y se usa el valor habitual en las escalas anteriores.
| Densidad (kg/m³)Masa por metro cúbico con aproximadamente un 12 % de humedad. La madera más pesada suele ser más dura y resistente. | 500–620 kg/m³habitual: 560 kg/m³ |
|---|---|
| Dureza Janka (N)Fuerza necesaria para hundir una bola de acero hasta la mitad en la madera. Es la medida estándar de resistencia a las abolladuras. | 3,300–4,000 Nhabitual: 3680 N |
| MOR: módulo de rotura (MPa)Resistencia a la flexión: la carga a la que se rompe una viga. | 65–85 MPa |
| MOE: módulo de elasticidad (GPa)Rigidez a la flexión: cuánto se comba un estante o tablero bajo carga. | 7.0–9.0 GPa |
| Contracción radialContracción perpendicular a los anillos de crecimiento, desde verde hasta completamente seca. Es la que afecta a las tablas aserradas radialmente. | 4.0–5.0 % |
