What Can I Do With White Ash?

Ash, like Hickory, is an extremely hard and dense wood. You'll need season it in a wood pile for several years before you can even use it for firewood, even after cutting and splitting it!

I hope you have a hydraulically operated log splitter on hand. Splitting it with an axe and/or wedges will take a lifetime!!! LOL

Why not contact some local artisan woodworkers and see if any of them would want it? You might get one to offer you a table made of the wood in turn for letting him/her have the rest of it.

i believe high quality English Billiards cues are made from Ash wood. You can ask Rileys in Liverpool maybe, who make top quality cues.

I had a neighbour, years ago who made a couple of rustic ladderback chairs from a fallen ash. I imagine they would last a long time, he split off the wood for the pieces so it was all straight grained. He went overboard though, using the lesser parts to make some of the rustic tools for the job.

Thanks. It's not flexible enough for a bow. It's good firewood almost as soon as it hits the ground. It burns well green. And, it splits like a dream; just a tap with the maul will split a 12" piece.

I hadn't though of a billiard cue. Though I'm so old I can't image getting in bar fights anymore; is there anything else you can use a billiard cue for?

Maybe a local woodworker might be a good idea. It would make a good table if you get it to dry without too much splitting.

i am 65 myself and enjoy playing Billiards and Snooker for a couple of hours everyday in my club here. Very decent crowd. The bar is separate, and you are not allowed to smoke or drink when playing. The good clubs in England are like temples for Indian players, the Crucible theatre is the ultimate. A topnotch cue i saw in Liverpool cost GBP 400 !

Any vampires in your neghborhood? White ash is supposed to make very good stakes for use against the undead. Maybe you could use it against all those annoying Twilight fans.

Alternately, white ash does make good fence posts.

I didn't know ash smells that...strong. In other parts of the world, they use garlic against vampires

By reputation, ash is well used to make handles for tools.

When I was a kid, my Dad made baseball bats on a simple lathe with white ash.

PEbobimm

sell it on e-bay.

I have found that ash has a similar grain to red oak and finishes very nicely in my wood projects.

It takes to planing and carving knives alot better than oak. Oak likes to splinter and is harder to work with hand tools.

I have quite a few wooden goblets made from ash trees that have fallen here. Maybe you could turn this into a good reason to buy another tool. Get a lathe and have fun. You can all ways burn the scrap or trial pieces later.

First thing is to section up the tree into the longest logs you can handle and immediately seal all the cuts with a soft wax. Just melt a pile of wax in a bucket and dip the ends in. For Hard-woods like ash you call stack it for a couple of seasons before you rip it into planks. Check with local specialists what you need to do to keep bugs from turning it into sawdust for you.

In my part of the world, where good timber is all imported at huge cost, seeing an ash cut up for firewood would reduce a man to tears. With a bit of forethought you could use a massive percentage of the tree, right down to the thin branches for furniture and tools, utensil handles, wooden spoons, even flooring. The light coloured woods are all the decorators' fashion at the moment.

On a totally different note, this past weekend I was told of a guy who had to rip out three fig trees on a building site. Apparently a senior guy saw what was about to happen and asked if he could take the trees. All agreed and he went about propagating over US$2500 worth of saplings that he sold to augment his pension. Sure beats dumping them.

It is used for canoe and boat gunnel's and ribs also and it is not at all like hickory, ash splits easy and when it is cut fresh burns great read the firewood poem it is the wood of kings , and Green and frozen some times you can just threaten it with a maul and it will fall apart ,it's all I burn and I have cut plenty with my wood mizer sawmill . when dry it does cut hard on the mill and it tends to chatter. Great for steam bending the Indians use brown ash for baskets and white in a pinch.

Now there's a possibility. I have an old rocking chair that needs a new split bottom. I can't find an accessible white oak tree. Could I use this for splits?

I had thought about bending me a hiking stick, but while in the gulley, I found a nice piece of dogwood already shaped the way I want it.

One of the strange things about living in Western PA is our wood availability. We have lots of hardwoods, just not very accessible. This tree, for example, is down in a deep gulley and, short of finding a decent horse (or mule!), I have to carry it uphill quite a bit. We end up burning stuff that others might not. About half my firewood is cherry, the rest being red oak (yecch!), black oak (yes!), and the occasional silver maple (impossible to split, but boy does it burn great).

There's even a sawmill not too far away which sometimes runs mine timbers out of cherry.

Mine Timbers out of CHERRY???????????????????? Now THAT makes me cry.......

First thing I would suggest is that you make sure the tree was not weakened by Asian longhorn beetles. If it was, you have bigger problems, and should contact the feds. The wood is delightful to split and burn. Many fine wooden gun cases (often called oak and leather) are made of ash. Of course there is furniture and baseball bats. Don't waste the wood unless it is infected.

Some vintage automobiles had parts of their frames made from ash wood.

I remember a co-worker once restoring one of these was looking for a source of dried ash wood to replicate the parts.

You might tried to get the attention of someone over on the automotive CR4 section.

On a side note, here in Indiana it is becoming all most illegal to transport Ash wood due to Emerald Ash Borer Beetle infestations. I think other states are starting worry a bit about that bug as well.

This may be considered "off topic", but the emerald ash borer has bedeviled Michigan, Indiana and Ohio for the last few years. These states have spent literally hundreds of millions cutting down and chipping ash trees as well as running major campaigns against transporting firewood across state and county lines.

While it seems a pity that this bug is systematically devastating the species the money spent on trying unsuccessfully to stop the spread of this seems way out of proportion to common sense. This seems like another government boondogle. Is there some redeeming value that I am missing?

Is there some redeeming value that I am missing?

It's a shame bugs and creatures get imported from their natural surroundings, like this one did. I am not one for larger government, but they ought to be good for something and I think the education portion should be enough to let people know the right thing to do.

As far as the tree's benefit: woodworking

some shade would be nice about now

This tree fell from wind. There is a massive rootball that came up with it (too soggy, too windy). But, you guys have convinced me. I'll cut one, maybe two, 80" logs, seal the ends, jack 'em up off the ground and let it (them) sit till winter of 2011. That'll give me time to dream up a scheme for turning my chainsaw into a sawmill.

Thanks for all the advice.

Better use you chainsaw mill now and cure lumber until 2011

Yeah, I understand, but I don't have any sort of guides for cutting slabs. Plus, if my wife catches me starting on yet another new project without finishing the thousands, many, few she's already given me, I'm toast.

On that subject, do you know if I can regrind an old crosscut chain to be a rip chain? I sure don't want to pay $40 for a fancy chain.

Cool. Thanks. I'll try that. I've got a cross-cut chain hanging downstairs waiting to be sharpened. It's got about one more use in it, so I'll not risk much if I screw it up. I've also just about figured out a good guide system (My wife can't watch me every minute!) as soon as I can steal liberate a couple pieces of UHMW poly. I did a test cut on a piece of the white ash the other day, and it checks like crazy. I think I have to get the heart wood outta there if I slab it green.

A GA to ya!

Yup, like Redfred says...
Make a bow (Nice flatbow, native American stlye) and a coffee table, some picture frames, a nice new workbench for my garage. Shurely Mrs TVP will have some ideas (shhhh unless really want to make new kitchen units from scratch?)

Cut it up into decent planks and store in a dry airy environment (maybe with some bug treatment if you heve 'em where you live), in the year it takes to season you'll think of plenty of uses and people will sy 'Can I have a plank of that?'
Del

Can you really make a bow? It has little flexibility compared to, say, hickory, or willow.

Yup, White Ash is a good bow wood, (btw willow is no good).
Ash will make a longbow at a pinch but is better suited to a wide flat style. As Ishi the last of the Yana native American Indians would say, make it 3 fingers wide for hunting or 4 fingers wide for warfare.
Tapering to 1-2 fingers at the tip. Say about 62" long
A bow of that style in Hazel is on my website (look in my profile by clicking on my username), a little Hazel bow pulling just 40 pounds will shoot an arrow about 175 yards at 93mph, _{easilly powerfull enough to go through a lawyer, banker or accountant (politicians are trickier as they are sooo slippery the arrows can easilly glance off)}
Warning... once you start making bows you'll be hooked, the buzz you get from shooting an arrow over a hundred yards from your own bow is great.
Del

One technique I have seen for curing logs is to make a radial cut to the center for the length of the log. The log will typically shrink to a "Pac-Man" cross-section, but with few or no further checks. After it dries, then plank it as you like.

That might work. It seems to be the heartwood that really makes the trouble.

Del, I'm gonna go for the bow. Should I shape it green or dry it first?

I found two new uses for white ash, one of which I'm gonna use. Yesterday, I had the chance to do a complete snoop in the USS Requin, a WWII sub (started during the war, finished afterwards) one of the (I think) two remaining Tench class subs. The decking on these boats was always made of either teak or white ash. Those woods don't float when wet. So, I've got the decking; all I need are two torpedos, a conning tower, and . . .no, that's not it.

White ash should make great rockers. I've been wanting to make a couple rocking chairs but didn't have anything good for the rockers. Birch works (barely), but is so heavy, it looks crappy. But, the ash should be just the ticket since it can be bent.

You can rough it out green, that will help it to season quicker. Paint the ends with PVA glue/paint/or whatever to help stop splits. Leave it a few inches longer than you need to allow for any such tiny splits (checks).
Don't actually bend it much when it's green, although you can 'floor tiller it' which means hold it upright one end pressed against your foot, hold the top in one hand and with the other hand press into the middle of it, if you can feel it starting to flex a bit then that's a good place to stop and put it to one side to season. If you want to be clever you can strap it to a big solid piece of timber with a block under each end to make it dry with a bit of recurve in it.
If it's your first bow, just have fun and don't expect too much.
Actually it's prob a good idea to do two staves as you will learn soooo much in doing the first (and maybe breaking it or ending up with a 20pound bow)

Del

I once attended a workshop on woodturning green wood and I wrote in my notes the following recipe:

Equal parts of spar varnish, turpentine thinner,and tung oil.

It was to be used after roughing a green wood turning to a shape just a bit larger than the finished project, then completely submersed into the solution and left alone for several months.

The idea was the solution would eventual replace the water molecules leaving the piece to stay in the same shape, without any warping or splitting sometimes seen by uneven air drying.

Since I am not much for delayed gratification. I have not had a chance to use the method and opt for sharper tools on previously dried wood. But usually, after about the 3rd tool sharpening, wish I had started the turning with greener wood.

I use the same recipe as a rubbing varnish for furniture. It works great.

OK, I've cut (and sealed the ends) a couple semi-cants of white ash. I'll let it dry a bit before attempting to slab it (I think). In the process I happened to notice that a neighbor had cut down a black locust tree in their yard and tossed the trunk over the property line (along with all their other yard waste). I've got it up to dry (I wonder if it will) and I may try that as well.

Oooh oooh, black locust makes bows too.
Del

I planted some black locust fence posts about 35 years ago and they are as solid as the day they were put in the ground. The stuff has rot resistance equivalent to pure gold.

They say it will outlast at least 3 holes.

Another good use for ash is bench slats

Well, I've cut my first slab. If you've never slabbed white ash with a chain saw, consider something easier first, like removing nose hair with a Ditch Witch!

I figure it'll finish out to about 1" x 4.5" x 80". If I pay myself $.25 an hour, and add the cost of a destroyed saw chain, that works out to, _{lessee add the 6, carry the 4, and, ahh} about $22.78 a board foot. Anyway, it's in the attic to dry for a while (forever, if I forget it). I'm next gonna try a split to see if I can get a bow piece.

So, _{face gets very red here} I went up to the attic to shift my slab to a better location and happened to notice a rust-colored spot near the end. I think the thing that was so hard on my saw chain might have been about an 8d nail, or perhaps an old piece of fence wire.