Elm

Similar to ash, being tough and fibrous, but not as flexible, with flowery patterns and straight grain, with an added fleck… perfect for chair seats, accent panels, drawer fronts etc – pale nutty brown.

Elm is again a quintessentially English timber and the timber of choice for the making of Windsor chair seats, of wheelwrights and of coffin makers. In the case of chair makers and wheelwrights, who use elm for making the hubs of cartwheels, the attraction is the grain of elm which twists and intermingles as it grows, such that it is resistant to ’tearing’ and almost ‘grabs’ at timber that is tightly jointed into it. For coffin makers, the attraction is its resistance to water.