Need help milling workbench lumber from trunks in Columbus Ohio

[David Weaver]

Oak and Ash and other open pored woods that are similar density to beech make suitable planes. They give you a greater chance of splintering something when working the contours or mortising or making the mouth, but I've had some old shop made oak planes that someone used heavily before discarding (which would suggest they liked them).

I'd prefer maple to ash and oak, though. Of relatively common things for large planes, my preference in descending order would be

Beech/Yellow Birch/Apple/Pear (if you were ever so lucky to get a large piece of apple or pear)
Hard Maple
White Oak (QS)
Red Oak or Ash (QS for both)
Cherry/Walnut

(in my opinion if oriented correctly, the top four categories make a suitable plane, with ash and oak just not being very attractive and not being as nice to work a rasp on or a paring chisel. Cherry and walnut just don't have enough durability around critical parts and are lacking density somewhat. I guess if you found a super dense vintage piece of cherry, maybe, I don't know, but I wouldn't do it. I have made a couple of cherry planes, bench and moulding, too, so I'm not just supposing).

[Andrew Nemeth]

Thanks again to all who posted. I decided at the last minute to let most of the trees go as the cost and liability to process small job residential wood seams to be cost prohibitive. I was figuring I would have $2k in it for 1-2k board feet. The tree service arborist recommended just buying a chainsaw mill (ballpark $2k) and doing it myself. In the end, I can buy lumber for the same price and I don't have to store it in the meantime.

Thanks again!

[David Weaver]

If you have a saw and you're going to buck it, keep in mind my comment about sawing and splitting a few rounds and sealing the ends. You may find all kinds of use for that kind of stuff later (bench legs, planes, a bench chop, etc) and 16/4+ stuff never comes cheap.

That's getting stock of that type on your part is pretty low effort, and if the tree splits straight without any twist a good ways up from the stump, it should be pretty stable stuff.