Working with Ash

[Dick Heifner]

Hi All,
Anybody out there have any problems working with Ash. This is for a set of cabinet's for my son in law.
Thanks, Dick.

[Steve Ash]

I hope no one has a problem working with me....:D J/K I have used Ash quite a lot, (gee I wonder why?) I have built a hope chest, gun cabinet, curio and used it as tongue and groove paneling in our cabin. It is also called "poor man's oak" I have just planed 250 bd. ft and an additional 500 more bd. ft. to use as cabinets and interior trim for my son's new house we will be building soon.

[Alan Turner]

Ash is great to work with Very even tempered wood. But, note the striking difference in appearance between flat sawn and quartered or rift sawn. Takes a bit of planing.

[Keith July]

Dick,
Steve Ash is pretty good to work with. We just finished a bar for the local American Legion and Ash did a great job....Oooooh do you mean the wood?
Sorry I could not resist. :)

I like working with Ash (the wood) it is a little less forgiving than Red Oak but equaly as beautiful (the wood) I have found that Ash will split or tear out a little more that other hardwooods. The grain is a little coarse but it finishes well. I found that I had to sand a little more on Ash and I could not skip grits because the scratchs from the coarser grits were more difficult to remove. The best part is the price, it is about half the cost of Red Oak. As you can see I think that Ash is a little like Red Oak and I could not think of another wood to compare it to.
Hope this helps
Keith

[Dale Rodabaugh]

One of my first projects was building a workbench.I chose ash,as it was a good strong wood and reasonably priced.I had no problems with it.That workbench is still the center of my shop.The top is 1 X 2 pieces biscuit joined and glued together,giving me a 2 inch thick very solid top.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :)

[Jim Young]

I hope no one has a problem working with me
That was my very first thought when I read the title.

Ash is pretty much the same as oak, at least I thought so.

[Todd Burch]

From a phyiscal properties perspective, ash is a good wood to work with. It won't do well out of doors. Bugs like it. If you don't pay attention (as with any heavy grained wood), a poor of choice of figure when assembling your project can destroy the looks of said project. It has big pores, so to get a good finish, there's more work to do in the finishing process to fill the pores. Predrill screw holes if the screws are weak. It holds a routed edge well. Sharp corners are apt to splinter. It doesn't stink when cut. Projects that go south will burn well.

Todd

[Lou Morrissette]

Dick,

I just finished building an enlosure cabinet for a refrigerator on a boat for a client. I had to mill my own t&g with v-groove to match the rest of the cabinets on the boat. The ash milled nicely with no problems at all and the finish came out great.
I've also used ash and walnut to dry bend into trout nets and it bends real good.

Lou

[Jim Becker]

There is a lot to like about ash. It works nicely, is relatively inexpensive, is quite strong...it even smells good, at least the species I tend to get around here. I'll pick it over oak any day. (other than QS white oak, of course) I do agree with Alan that you need to plan your cutting carefully to avoid strong opposing grain constrasts between project components. But that should be normal practice with any speices...choosing lumber for grain and color is the first step in the finishing process!

I also like to turn ash, both for spindles (chairs) and for other forms of turning. One of my favorite treatments for ash on turnings, such as bowls and vessels is to burn it followed by burnishing, repeating that a few times until an even ebonizing has been created. It accentuates the differences between the early and late wood, adding texture as well as rich color.