Working With Ash Wood

You should experience virtually no disappointment in the way the wood cuts routs sands and.

Working with ash wood. The emerald ash borer as invaded eastern ash trees making wood scarcer in those areas and quickly spreading to other parts of north america. Moderate blunting effect on cutters but can be worked fairly well with hand or power tools. The degree and availability of light colored sapwood and other properties will vary according to the growing regions. As tim knight mentions in his sidebar this may become even more true in the near future.

Some ash can have darker bug tracks that are not considered defects except in veneer logs. I am not very familiar with ash wood and at first i tough that it was some king of pine wood as the color is very light. White ash green ash red ash black ash brown ash. It should compare similarly to oak in terms of price.

Brown ash is darker and presents a challenge when mixing with white ash in a project. True ash trees all fall under the same genus called fraxinus. The wood of white ash nearly matches hickory s rating in strength stiffness and hardness. I love working with ash.

See the articles wood allergies and toxicity and wood dust safety for more information. Ash wood is a key part of the lumber industry thanks to its strength lightweight nature shock resistance and beautiful aesthetics. Working ash in the shop. Yet at 41 pounds per cubic foot cream colored white ash is lighter and easier to work.

For most woodworking the lighter colored sapwood takes preference. For as long as i have been woodworking ash has been a good value costing less than other comparable hardwoods. Although somewhat course textured white ash generally has straight and even grain. Architectural woodworking forum from contributor a.

It has good strength toughness stiffness and hardness for it s relatively light weight. Ash takes stains very easily and many woodworkers agree that ash simply works far better than red oak. It s often used in woodworking construction and sporting goods for these reasons as well. Beware of beetles but not the rock group.

White ash closely matches red oak in density and hardness. This wood species is not listed in the cites appendices but is on the iucn red list. Bending properties vary but are generally very good. The wood is generally straight grained with a coarse uniform texture.

Ash is among the least expensive utility hardwoods available domestically. Milling finishing carving turning but i have found that the finished ply is more expensive than oak.