Rock Elm. Will look that one up when I get home. I have a collection of old forestry/taxonomy books. You sometimes have to look in the really old books to find out that a common name disappears over time. I got into an arguement with my sawyer over some logs I brought to him. They were black gum. He insisted that they were pepperige. He told me that the really old timers used them for tongues on their wagons because they were cross grained and would bend but not break. We were both right and I had to show him a 1914 book to prove it.
I was reading your thread. My son and I are working on a project that includes looking at old barns. We looked at one last weekend from 1860's. Had four 62' hand hewns running the length of the barn holding up the floor.
Question for you. What is the longest beam you have seen/heard of? I am almost certain that these are tulip poplar because of bark that is still showing.
Another question. Elm is cross grained and will not split easily without threading. Would think that it would be a last resort for timber framing, although that might be true in Europe. We still have quite a few american elms in my neck of the woods(northwest PA). They are almost always out there on their own. In a sense isolated from the disease. I taught my sons to identify them by profile, and before you knew it, they had found them everywhere. Penn State University has a real live collection of american elms. Old ones that line the walkways on the older parts of campus. They spent lots of time/money to keep them alive.
Enjoyed the thread and look forward to your answers.
