Ash properties

[sbarton22]

Can someone help me understand a little bit more the properties of ash?

I am making an assembly table with long adjustable runners as feet. I thought it would be cool to try to shape them to give it more visual interest and, at the same time, start to make a complex curves. So, I but out the plane and spokeshave and off I go.

The runners are a sandwich of ash, cherry, and maple, making racing stripe, if you will, with ash being the outer sides (say 2" on either side) of a 5" wide runner. Ash seemed very hard in the lumberyard, so I thought it would be a great choice to take abuse as the trim and various edge parts of shop furniture. So, most of the shaping was to be done in the ash.

I found very odd results. no matter how sharp my irons were (and wow does that make a difference!), I would get tear out on the cathedral part of the grain, even with my card scraper. This happened mostly on the tighter radius areas. For a visual, if I had run a 3/4" round over bit, the area of the round over would have shown tear out versus the larger radius areas.

So, the best way I can describe ash is the dark grain is soft like butter compared to the light grain and all of it seems very brittle with very long fibers. Looking at the results and how much it fought me, I would say that ash has the same properties as oak. If something like cherry is very workable and forgiving, ash does not want to work with you much.

Moving forward, what else can people tell me about ash so that I can understand it's properties and select it use more appropriately?

[Screamer777]

Try this:

http://www.hardwoodinfo.com/species_guide/index.php

http://www.thewoodbox.com/data/wood/ashinfo.htm

[jhl.verona]

I don't have any direct experience yet - I'm still waiting for it to arrive. In any case it will likely be European Ash, whereas you've been probably working with American Ash. Some observations on the differences here, which seem to agree with you.

There is a (still) WIP for an Ash display cabinet which I have been following - there are some nice pictures, and a few remarks similar to yours.

On the same forum, a few finishing tips here and here. The main concern seems to be avoiding a certain hue of yellow . So I won't be using anything oil based. Good excuse to try shellac probably.

John

[sbarton22]

Great links!!

I was a little shocked to see the adversity to the oil. I put on a coat of BLO, and I thought it looked pretty cool. Perhaps I have been staring at that very muted tan color, but the warm hue really made it look soft. I haven't looked at it dry, so maybe I will be hating myself when I do, but it looked pretty sweet on my first application of the BLO.

[bois]

Despite what the above link says, I am not a big fan of using ash for working with hand tools. I've found it tears out easily (and sometimes inexplicably) and also dulls edges fairly quickly. The other problem is that if you do use oil over ash, it will get a somewhat yellow hue over time. For something like a bench or assembly table that's not a big deal, but to me I don't really want furniture that yellows over time.

[sbarton22]

Despite what the above link says, I am not a big fan of using ash for working with hand tools. I've found it tears out easily (and sometimes inexplicably) and also dulls edges fairly quickly. The other problem is that if you do use oil over ash, it will get a somewhat yellow hue over time. For something like a bench or assembly table that's not a big deal, but to me I don't really want furniture that yellows over time.

Ok, I thought about that and on a completely different part of the project I simply laid down a couple of coats of wipe on poly. I definitely see the color difference.

Now, my question is if the wood itself is as protected without some kind of base? I generally like to rub some form of oil to deeper penetrate before I go with a wipe on poly or buff it (Beall system)

Also, do you use any oil ever? Won't the oil cause everything to yellow over time? or just ash in particular because it is "white" to begin with?

Thanks for the input

[bois]

Oil will add a bit of an amber hue to anything you use it on. It's just that in cherry or walnut, that hue is blending with a lot more color. With lighter species like maple, birch, or ash it's more noticeable. That being said, my experience is that ash has an additional yellowing quality to it. I built my entire bench out of ash, and it looked really nice after I coated it with BLO. But a few years later, and it's a very noticeable (and unattractive) yellow. I'll see if I can dig up some "before" pics to compare to some after pics.