> On Apr 23, 2021, at 6:13 PM, gary allan may via groups.io
 wrote:
> 
> I hear about elm's toughness in old books, but have never had a chance to
handle any :(
> 

I made my froe beedle out of black locust, and regularly use two canes I made
out of American elm.  Good choices for both uses.

I’d rank the black locust slightly harder to work with a spokeshave or anything
else, as its grain is more stringy than American elm.  This makes it difficult
to smooth it without tear-out.  Black locust also bends a bit more than elm when
equally loaded.  ‘Stringy' translates into a bit nasty when splitting a green
black locust log, as it took me about 7 hrs to split & quarter an 8 ft x 12-15”
fresh log years ago with a maul and five wedges in 90 degF heat.  When working
the dried wood,  rubbing your skin against the grain can be painful, but the
slivers generally are big and easily pulled out (YNNAMHIKT).  As I grew up next
to a large farm that had miles of black locust fencing for cattle, I can assure
you it is not smart to try to slide across those sun-dried fence rails wearing
shorts, but those fences last for decades.

The leg vise I salvaged from my grandfather’s workbench years ago was made from
red elm, which is similar looking, more pink-red in color than the white
American elm, and it is not the same as the white variety.  I’ve worked the
vise’s wood to replace the damage on the top of the vertical piece with a
spliced on piece of white oak, and another piece of red elm; both were
definitely not as hard or as strong.

The American elm I use comes from a 35 yr old / 60 ft high tree in our back yard
that lost a couple of its multiple trunk sections to high winds.  When seasoned,
it is a mild PITA to work into smooth cane shafts, but there is no doubt a 7/8”
elm cane shaft (about 22mm) will hold my weight and then some.  It bends very
slightly (perhaps 1mm over a 36” length) when dry and loaded laterally with as
much force as I can put into it;  I doubt any cane I have made would break
without considerable effort being involved.

I would never want to get smacked with either an elm or a black locust stick, so
either one ought to be just fine to use for driving a froe.

As for you guys lusting for a froe, I noticed Tony Seo found an antique,
probably blacksmith-made one in fairly good shape today — you might want to take
a look at his posting.

Charlie Driggs