Ash as a turning wood

[Pedro Reyes]

Hi all, last Thursday during some relatively strong winds, my neighbor's tree lost a limb, it fell mostly on their side but small branches hit my fence with minimal damage. Anyway, it is an Ash tree, so one could say that what fell is, a nice piece of ash ;)

He said he has no use for it other than firewood and that I could have some pieces, nothing will be more than 8-10" in diameter after cleaning, but it is green and I would assume OK to turn. I know ash can make good tool handles, but are there any other uses (bowls, ornaments) outside baseball bats where it stands out as a good wood for turning?

/p

[Robert Rozaieski]

Don't know about turning as I haven't done much of that yet but it would make great spindles, bows and legs for a Windsor chair.

[William Addison]

There are several species of Ash, the wood from the Ash trees here (Corpus Christi) is useless. I think what we have is Rio Grande Ash and it is not anything like Ash from other parts of the country. I would check and see what you have before you go to the work to mill it.

[Gary Herrmann]

Branch wood moves a whole lot more than trunk wood. You'd be better off if what you turn has no pith in it. It's a good wood to turn. Hard and dense. There's a reason baseball bats have been made of it for years.

[Jim Becker]

Ash is wonderful to turn. Note that for tool handles, you'll want to cut billets and let them dry before you turn them...you don't want green wood for that purpose. For bowls and vessels, green is just fine for roughing.

[Pedro Reyes]

Thanks all for your replies. I'm in Austin so perhaps not the best species either.

All great info, I'll try to get some and maybe rough out a little vessel and save the rest for chisel handles once dry.

/p

[Reed Gray]

I have an eastern ash bowl that I have taken to the shows I do as my food bowl for the last 10 years. It is a little coarse grained, but good wood. The only problem that I have had with the ash bowls I have turned is that the plain white ones don't sell very well. If it is an older tree, with the brown/olive heart, then it sells well.

Heck, the wood is free, turn anything with it.

robo hippy

[William Bachtel]

I think you will like turning the Ash. It has one of the lowest moisture contents on the stump out there.

[George Guadiane]

Thanks all for your replies. I'm in Austin so perhaps not the best species either.

All great info, I'll try to get some and maybe rough out a little vessel and save the rest for chisel handles once dry.

/p

By all means, try a piece or two. What doesn't workfor one turner is gold to another.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Turned a lot of ash. Turns well and is a good canidate for using colors or dyes.

[charlie knighton]

ya might want to try burning the early wood

[Ryan Baker]

Ash is a great turning wood. I turn a lot of it. In fact, I just turned an ash bowl and have a few others waiting for me. It has (as Reed mentioned) that brown/olive heart wood in it which gives the finished bowl some pretty grain IMO.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi all, last Thursday during some relatively strong winds, my neighbor's tree lost a limb, it fell mostly on their side but small branches hit my fence with minimal damage. Anyway, it is an Ash tree, so one could say that what fell is, a nice piece of ash ;)

He said he has no use for it other than firewood and that I could have some pieces, nothing will be more than 8-10" in diameter after cleaning, but it is green and I would assume OK to turn. I know ash can make good tool handles, but are there any other uses (bowls, ornaments) outside baseball bats where it stands out as a good wood for turning?

/p

Hi Pedro, yes as was pointed out there are different Ash species around, and I've turned a bunch of them, they all (the ones I turned) are good to turn, you don't have a very large piece there, but good for a couple of bowls and then boxes and weed pots, birdhouse ornaments, goblets, candle holders, scoops/spoons, mushrooms, honey dippers, tops, etc., there's all kinds of stuff to be made out of it.
Heres a couple of things I turned from some different Ash wood.

[Tom Lewis]

I don't know what kind of ash we have in New Mexico, but I like to turn it.
The Platter is over 18 inches in diameter, the vase is 9 inches tall, the small bowl was turned thin while it was pretty green and has warped.

[Dick Sowa]

Not sure how it affects the rest of the country, but here around the Great Lakes, we have virtually zero ash trees left. The emerald ash borer has almost completely wiped them out. Last I heard, the critter has worked it's way into Missouri, and continues to spread. There are some pretty strict prohibitions against transporting ash logs...although kiln dried lumber is safe.

I guess the lesson is to enjoy the wood while it lasts!

[Frank Kobilsek]

Dick is right that Ash is getting hard to aquire up North due to EAB. Tree folks won't let you have it. I get alot of wood from the City crew and they got a grant to take down Ash trees and were required to burn 100% of what they took down. This Ash bowl was City wood - pre-grant. I use this piece in discussions of balancing grain.

Grab a few pieces, Rip out the pith, seal it a project will come along that it will work for.

Frank

[Alan Huey]

Never know until you get it on the lathe. Share the pics so that we can all learn something. Based on what a few of the other fellow have shown in their work, it certainly looks to be attractive!