Elm Tankard

 Elm trees used to be very common throughout the British Isles, probably because the wood was so useful. Elm wood is very hard-wearing and resistant to splitting so it has a wide variety of uses. It past times it had medicinal value, and was used to treat colds and sore throats, and was also used to produce a yellow dye. The leaves, seeds and even the bark were used as fodder for animals (in fact they were used by people too, in times of famine). Dutch Elm disease in the 1960’s and 1970’s destroyed some 99% of the British Elms, so that Elm is now a scarce and expensive wood. It’s normally too expensive to make tankards but the wood used for this tankard came from a timber merchant’s off-cut pile.

It is hard to describe the appearance of Elm wood. The overall colour effect is a light tan, but this is made up of many shades of colour within the grain pattern. In fact, the interlocking grain pattern is the most attractive feature of the wood.