Anyone Used Ash For Projects?

[Ronald Blue]

I have an opportunity to acquire some Ash and wondered if it was worth the trouble? I know it's a light colored wood. It is classified as a hardwood falling between red and white oak for hardness. The log hasn't been milled yet. The tree was just felled last week. Ash Borer got to it. It didn't leaf out this year. So it will be wet but not like it would have been if it were a growing healthy tree. I haven't saw it but the owner said he sees no checking on the base. Basically I will only have the milling costs involved. Thanks in advance.

[Jebediah Eckert]

I’ve used it a bunch and am a big fan. I dropped a few at my house and had it all quarter sawn. I’m getting to the last 50 bd foot or so. I’m having trouble finding an Ash log locally that’s not too far gone to replenish my supply. But I should be getting a few 30”ish logs come winter after the ground freezes. I don’t love flat sawn Ash but it’s perfectly fine. Any future logs I get will all get quarter sawn. I’ve had good luck with hand and power tools. The air dried stuff planes beautifully.

[Christopher Herzog]

I have used some in the past. For sure a hard wood and was not the best to stain. Not against using it but would make sure your finishing plan works ahead of time.

Chris

[Jebediah Eckert]

Here is a desk top I finished (flat sawn stuff I had) last week. I have very little experience with staining anything but this is what they wanted. I guess it does have lighter and darker areas after the stain. Anyhow, this is how it looks stained...

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[glenn bradley]

Long ago. The yellow undertones made my first instinct on finish fail. I tried to finish it like white oak. It took on a green tint. Some "maple" brown with more red undertones than blue solved that.

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It's times like these that a color wheel comes in handy ;-)

[Eric Arnsdorff]

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Ash is a terrific wood to work with! It mills well and looks terrific. It looks somewhat similar to oak and is often used as an oak substitute in the furniture industry but I like it a lot better than oak.
These are a few things I've made with it. The doughnut board and cornhole boards have walnut as the dark wood and ash as the lighter wood. The blanket cabinet is all ash with a layered gel stain. All are finished with a wipe on polyurethane.

[Brian Tymchak]

I built both my bench and timberframe style lumber rack with White Ash. Love to work with it. Have not put a stain on it but I believe it would behave much like white oak. It can have some color to it sometimes, some greens and pinks. Never worked with black or green ash. It takes an oil finish beautifully. I plan to lay in a good sized store of it as the EAB is going to make it extinct.

[John TenEyck]

I love ash. Some call it the poor man's oak. Even a healthy ash tree has only 45% moisture. Standing dead ones might only be half as much so 4/4 - 6/4 air dries in only a couple of months. Cut it now and you'll be able to bring it inside for final drying by Fall.

Ash is great to work with both with power and hand tools. It's one of the best woods for bent lamination work and for steam bending, and is tough, strong, and has great shock absorption. I like all grain orientations with ash, but rift sawn is special. Much like rift sawn white oak, it's quiet elegance.

If you can get it for the cost of milling I definitely would do it if it's a good log. Good log to me means no limbs; I'm looking for clear wood. The ash borer has no effect on the wood. I've milled some ash that has been dead standing for two years and it's hard to believe how beautiful the wood is inside those ugly looking trunks.

John

[Ronald Blue]

I love ash. Some call it the poor man's oak. Even a healthy ash tree has only 45% moisture. Standing dead ones might only be half as much so 4/4 - 6/4 air dries in only a couple of months. Cut it now and you'll be able to bring it inside for final drying by Fall.

Ash is great to work with both with power and hand tools. It's one of the best woods for bent lamination work and for steam bending, and is tough, strong, and has great shock absorption. I like all grain orientations with ash, but rift sawn is special. Much like rift sawn white oak, it's quiet elegance.

If you can get it for the cost of milling I definitely would do it if it's a good log. Good log to me means no limbs; I'm looking for clear wood. The ash borer has no effect on the wood. I've milled some ash that has been dead standing for two years and it's hard to believe how beautiful the wood is inside those ugly looking trunks.

John
I've not laid eyes on it but it sounds like there is at least 10 feet clear. He was going to measure the diameter and length but he was guessing 24" or better in diameter. It hasn't been cut from the top yet.
So it looks like plain sawn and quartersawn both have their appeal. I know the yield won't be as high if it's quartersawn.

[Tim Janssen]

I used Ash for the "legs" for this coffee table. The four curved ones were steam bent to get the desired curvature.

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Cheers!

Tim

[David Lageman]

Just finished an entertainment center and credenza in ash...my first time using it. Found it nice to work with and plan on using it in future projects.

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[Scott Winners]

I like Ash just fine. I am a bit leery of the borer, but all the Kiln Dried stuff I have seen up here has been free of worm holes. It is great for tool handles, axes, shovels, wheelbarrow, that sort of thing. Both of my grandpa's preferred Ash to Hickory in these applications. Just BLO and sweat for finish.

Air dried, as John TE has already pointed out, it is a fabulous choice for steam bending. KD/steam bending not so much.

If a piece has borer holes it is pretty much no go for structural uses. I don't know of anyone willing to grade a structural piece of Ash after injecting contrast dye into the borer holes and taking an Xray and trying to grade the board. There is no procedure for that in the NELMA grading guide for one thing. I wouldn't make tool handles out of a piece with borer holes either. Maybe a small screwdriver handle, but definitely not an axe haft.

Great firewood, useless in the BBQ pit (I have tried smoking potato slices on Ash, don't bother). I would want to be there when the sawyer was cutting slabs off with an elevated suspicion I was paying the mill to get me started making firewood, but if I could get some 6/4 or 8/4 slabs out of it for tool handles and steam bending after airdrying with no borer holes I would be ecstatic.

Not very rot resistant, but good for outwales on boats that get beat on often running into docks. You might have to repaint often, but you won't have to replace the outwale regularly.

I am personally not a fan of the grain patterns with clear finish (my opinion), but Ash is a legit eastern North American hardwood like oak or maple or beech or hickory in painted applications to me.

Good luck and best wishes.

[Dave Zellers]

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Not to hijack the thread or anything, but re your first pic, tomorrow is National Donut Day.

I'm just sayin'.

[Dave Zellers]

Now to get back on topic- I love ash too. Really stable. A joy to work with.

But ANY ash wood that has been attacked by the borer MUST! be kiln dried. You do not want to spread it. Many states have strict laws re this. I don't think I would use air dried ash.

[andy bessette]

Ash looks very nice without stain. It was widely used in the manufacture of Airstream travel trailers, one of the finest.

[Jim Becker]

Ash is really nice to work with and while it has a lighter color, the grain pattern is similar to oak, etc. It's not lightweight.

There is a ton of ash on the market...emerald ash borer has killed a huge percentage of these trees now. 100% kill on the property we're in process of selling right now. I have a few logs to be sawn from there including one that measures almost 40" at the larger end.

And yea...you need to properly dry it before use by stacking and stickering it off the ground in a place where there's good air flow. The only cover should be something on the top to keep standing precipitation off the stack.

[Ole Anderson]

Grain pattern is very much like red oak but without the porosity.

[Robert Wachtell]

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Here in Weston, CT Ash trees have been dropped by the state and town HW departments because they have died from Emerald Ash Borer. The beetle does not travel past the bark so the trees so long as they are gotten to the mill in time such that they are not effected/destroyed by other forces post mortem, produce outstanding clear lumber.

I have salvaged quite a bit of dead ash that was dropped on my 250 feet of roadside frontage by the state.

The ash stumpage mills EXTREMLY well for multiple reasons. First ash is relatively dry off the stump to begin with. Secondly the EAB beetle girdled the ash which caused the ash to be even be drier off the stump. Any experienced and OBSERVANT sawyer knows the drier wood is the easier and straighter it cuts on the band mill. The more moisture in a log and the more pitch the more difficult it is to cut straight. Water tanks on band mills should only be used to reduce PITCH BUILD UP on band blades. If your logs are dry, they likely will not create pitch build up on your blades .... SO DO NOT ADD WATER FROM THE WATER TANK IN THIS CASE. you will resuscitate pitch build up if you do ( you are re wetting the natural glue in the wood ) and deteriorate blade cutting performance.


Regardless of pitch ( say there is none in the wood at all ) water added to a band blade creates more friction on the blade to wood contact. With any type of wood. Contrary to popular belief it does not reduce friction.

You grip a axe handle in the dry cold fall by licking your hands so the wood handle does not slip from your hands. If you want the axe to slip from your hands and knock someone in the head you keep your hands bone dry.

I learned all this on my own with a LT10 sawmill. The concept can be scaled up to any size BAND sawmill. Enough said.

Some Ash grows very slowly ( 30 rings to the inch ) and is outstanding wood, Some grows very quickly (3 rings to the inch) and is far less stable across all aspects.

Here in Lower Fairfield County CT a lot of our dead ash were VERY old growth trees. ( Lots of rings per inch )

Ash trees in Vermont ( even northern ) sometimes have 3 rings per inch. I don't know what that's about. Different tree perhaps.

In general Ash works for me as a very stable wood. I will bet handsomely that it will work for you I work with the quarter sawn aspect of it only. If you go flat grain, all bets are off.

It is an excellent contrasting wood when synergized with other darker woods like Cherry or Walnut.

Photos ... Some 30 ring ash I used for drawer rails. And a ash bird tail in a Cherry drawer face. The ash was dropped by the state in front of my house after it passed on from the dreaded EAB.

[Russell Hayes]

I understand the EAB (thanks China) will kill 100% of all ash varieties unless individual trees are treated annually. So enjoy what Ash you have, there won't be anymore anytime soon. Once the pest has killed everything and moved on eventually it may die off (nothing to feed on). Then the forests can be replanted.
I'm in central west ohio and lost at least 50 mature trees on my 16 ac.

[Charles Coolidge]

Some 4/4 curly and quartersawn Ash I have acclimating indoors for an upcoming project. I favor quartersawn over flatsawn.

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[Robert Wachtell]

I understand the EAB (thanks China) will kill 100% of all ash varieties unless individual trees are treated annually. So enjoy what Ash you have, there won't be anymore anytime soon. Once the pest has killed everything and moved on eventually it may die off (nothing to feed on). Then the forests can be replanted.
I'm in central west ohio and lost at least 50 mature trees on my 16 ac.

The good news is that small young ash trees ( their bark not yet fissuring ) are impervious to the EAB. There are many young saplings around are area.

The question is how long will they remain impervious and will it be long enough until the EAB dies off. Or will the ash sapling groves provide sleeper cell locations from year to year for the EAB as they mature ultimately wiping the ash off the continent completely over time.

My guess is the great ash will outlive the insect and grow big and tall again.

Too bad we won't be around to know for sure.

[Robert Wachtell]

Ash is really nice to work with and while it has a lighter color, the grain pattern is similar to oak, etc. It's not lightweight.

There is a ton of ash on the market...emerald ash borer has killed a huge percentage of these trees now. 100% kill on the property we're in process of selling right now. I have a few logs to be sawn from there including one that measures almost 40" at the larger end.

And yea...you need to properly dry it before use by stacking and stickering it off the ground in a place where there's good air flow. The only cover should be something on the top to keep standing precipitation off the stack.

I have milled about 1000 board feet of EAB White Ash and found that it was already very dry off the mill. So dry that I did not use any water on my blade when I cut it. Because of that it cut like butter even with a dull blade on a Woodmizer LT10. I had no cupping un on anything quarter sawn and very little on boards with flat sawn grain in them. Even with no weight on those boards at the top of the sticker pile.

Rather magical to say the least.

Wish I had gotten more of it but the dead stands are probably pretty sponged up by now.

Its cheap now but my guess says $10 a board foot in 5 years. No less then that or more.

Ash needs timbor after the cut or you will have a LOT of holes. Big time!

[Stan Calow]

Tons of ash trees around here, and they're all gonna die. I like ash too, and it takes dye very well. Good for ebonizing, because it still shows strong grain.

Chestnut and Ameircan elm wiped out by bugs. Most troubling of all is a bug-carried disease threatening black walnut out there - Thousand Canker disease.

[Thomas Pender]

In days past, the S. Bent Bros. Chair Company of Gardener MA made fantastic furniture out of ash. They were kind of the Rolls Royce of Dining Room Furniture - Sheaf Back Chairs, French Provincial Legs, beautiful corner China’s etc. They got some kind of brown stain on it and it turned a light brown color. I think Target Coatings has some stains that would achieve a very nice look, but you will have to wait for it to dry and use a spray lacquer. So, yes I value ash - have several hundred board feet of it sitting next to my QS White Oak and various Cherry types. In addition, it makes a super secondary wood for drawers (great contrast for Mission) and I agree it machines well - it works very well with my Dominos. It also has the virtue of being relatively inexpensive for the reasons discussed above.

[Ronald Blue]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will move forward with this. From my research and others also stated that the EAB attacks the bark and leads to the tree losing it's ability to intake nutrients. They don't live in the wood itself.

[David Publicover]

I picked up some ash a couple years ago and air dried it for about a year before I used any. It was my first drying experience and I was pleased with the results all around.
The ash was very nice to work and I got several projects out of it. Like some others here, I found it took colour well- I used analine dye. I’m in the process of moving now but I hope to acquire some more once I get resettled.
The desk is stained ash. I think it’ll be worth the effort to get some milled up. Good luck!
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[Curt Harms]

The good news is that small young ash trees ( their bark not yet fissuring ) are impervious to the EAB. There are many young saplings around are area.

The question is how long will they remain impervious and will it be long enough until the EAB dies off. Or will the ash sapling groves provide sleeper cell locations from year to year for the EAB as they mature ultimately wiping the ash off the continent completely over time.

My guess is the great ash will outlive the insect and grow big and tall again.

Too bad we won't be around to know for sure.

I hope ash will follow the course of Chestnut. Some trees may be naturally resistant to EAB. Find those and use them for seed stock. Or use genetic engineering to insert genes making them resistant to EAB.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I have a project for a client at the moment that is using a lot of Ash. Custom interior passage doors, trim (casing and baseboard) and a few furniture projects that will all use Ash.

It’s beautiful lumber that can have a really nice clean aesthetic if you select the grain carefully - just like most woods, I suppose. There’s something really special about mostly rift sawn ash with some careful selected flat sawn areas with a clear finish that can be very classy and elegant without feeling like too much.

It’s hard, stable, and right now a very attractive price. Just paid between $3.40-4.40 bd/ft for S2S1E 4/4, 6/6, and 8/4 FAS grade ash. I priced 6/4 FAS white oak earlier this week for a potential upcoming project and it was $9-10 bd/ft.....

[Keith Outten]

Just a thought for any of you who use ash for projects if you have drops that can be cut into 8" by 10" plaques you can sell them to people who laser engrave. Smaller 5" by 7" and larger 10" by 12" plaques are also valuable to the right person. Ash is just one of the wood species that laser engraves really well. The same is true for cherry, hickory, mahogany, walnut and others that laser engrave with nice contrast and they are pretty expensive if you buy them already finished which is an easy task for any woodworker.

[Robert Wachtell]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will move forward with this. From my research and others also stated that the EAB attacks the bark and leads to the tree losing it's ability to intake nutrients. They don't live in the wood itself.

For sure, but if the trees have been dead for a while there may be something else deep in the wood by now. Got to get them soon after the beetles kill them.