Ash
Pale tan with a bold, open grain; tough as a baseball bat, because it is one.
lbf on the Janka scale
Inside the range we like for boards
White oak is 30 lbf harder than ash, and sits inside the board range too.
Color
Beige to light brown, the grain lines darker and clearly drawn
Where it came from
- Sourced from
- Northwestern Illinois, eastern Iowa and southern Wisconsin
- Dried
- Kiln dried before anything is cut from it.
More about ash at The Wood Database · Wood data: The Wood Database (Eric Meier)
White ash is the wood of baseball bats and tool handles: light for its strength and hard to break. On a board or a tray the grain is the thing, long bold lines that show straight through the oil.
The ash trees of the Midwest are dying to the emerald ash borer, and the species is now listed as critically endangered. Working the wood from trees that have already come down is one way of keeping some of it.
How it ages
Ash starts pale and yellows gently toward a warm tan. The dark grain lines stay dark, so the pattern gets stronger, not weaker, as the piece ages.
Knife feel
Between walnut and maple in hardness and kind to an edge. The open grain wants a good coat of oil to start with and drinks more than maple does in its first year.
