Editing Elm (section)

===Wood===
[[File:Elm wood grain.jpg|thumb|right|Elm wood]]
[[File:Constable - Boat-Building near Flatford Mill, 1815, FA.37.jpg|thumb|right|Elm in boatbuilding: [[John Constable]], ''[[Boat-Building Near Flatford Mill]]'', 1815 (landscape with hybrid elms ''Ulmus × hollandica''<ref name="Richens"/>)]]
[[File:Bogenbau-Flaemischer-Spleiss.jpg|thumb|right|[[English longbow]] of elm]]

Elm [[wood]] is valued for its interlocking grain, and consequent resistance to splitting, with significant uses in [[wagon]]-wheel hubs, [[Windsor chair|chair]] seats, and [[coffin]]s. The bodies of Japanese ''[[Taiko]]'' drums are often cut from the wood of old elm trees, as the wood's resistance to splitting is highly desired for nailing the skins to them, and a set of three or more is often cut from the same tree. The elm's wood bends well and distorts easily. The often long, straight trunks were favoured as a source of timber for [[keel]]s in ship construction. Elm is also prized by [[bowyer]]s; of the [[Holmegaard bow|ancient bows]] found in Europe, a large portion are elm. During the [[Middle Ages]], elm was also used to make [[English longbow|longbows]] if [[Taxus baccata|yew]] was unavailable.

The first written references to elm occur in the [[Linear B]] lists of military equipment at [[Knossos]] in the [[Mycenae|Mycenaean period]]. Several of the chariots are of elm ("πτε-ρε-ϝα", ''pte-re-wa''), and the lists twice mention wheels of elmwood.<ref>Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, ''Documents in Mycaenean Greek'', Cambridge 1959</ref> [[Hesiod]] says that ploughs in Ancient Greece were also made partly of elm.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Works and Days]]'', 435</ref>

The density of elm wood varies between species, but averages around 560&nbsp;kg/m<sup>3</sup>.<ref name="nichetimbers.co.uk">[http://www.nichetimbers.co.uk/native-hardwood/elm/ Elm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003072048/http://www.nichetimbers.co.uk/native-hardwood/elm/ |date=3 October 2012 }}. Niche Timbers. Accessed 19-08-2009.</ref>

Elm wood is also resistant to decay when permanently wet, and hollowed trunks were widely used as water pipes during the medieval period in Europe. Elm was also used as piers in the construction of the original [[London Bridge]], but this resistance to decay in water does not extend to ground contact.<ref name="nichetimbers.co.uk"/>