What Is Ash Hardwood Used For

It just doesn t get any respect.

What is ash hardwood used for.

Ash wood has a similar density and grain to oak. Oregon ash has a janka rating of 1 160 and pumpkin ash rates 990. Ash machines well is good in nailing screwing and gluing and can be stained to a very good finish. White ash is used extensively in sporting goods bats oars pool cues tool handles cabinet work high class joinery plywood paneling and veneer.

That s way too much for any single use so we ve had to find creative ways to use what would otherwise be a waste product. Ash has a hardness rating of 1200 most scales generally agree but sometimes they may be slightly different in number. Frequently ash is used as a substitute for red oak. In fact it s often used as a replacement for oak and is sometimes called golden oak like oak cherry and maple tree wood ash is considered a hardwood tree.

Blue ash has a janka rating of 2 030. Working with ash wood is not necessarily difficult but there are some specific characteristics that should be addressed. A cord of hardwood produces roughly 5 8 gallons of wood ash so that means we have around 30 40 gallons of wood ash in the spring. Since the late 1990s ash has been under attack from an invasive insect from asia.

White ash is rated at 1 320 and green ash at 1 200. The seeds branches and leaves are used as food by a number of birds and animals. Green ash and black ash trees are preferentially attacked by the insects followed by white ash and blue ash. It dries fairly easily with minimal degrade and there is little movement in performance.

It is used traditionally by gardeners as a good source of potash. The specific gravity of ash woods ranges from 0 60 for white ash to 0 49 for black ash. For example since ash is a hardwood it is important not to sand it with too fine a grit of sandpaper before staining. I ve always had the impression that ash is the rodney dangerfield of the hardwood lumber world.

Black ash trees are also a big part of the natural ecosystem. The emerald ash borer has been decimating the species. Wood ash is the residue powder left after the combustion of wood such as burning wood in a home fireplace or an industrial power plant. White ash has excellent shock resistance and along with hickory carya spp it is one of the most commonly used hardwoods for tool handles in north america particularly in shovels and hammers where toughness and impact resistance.

In fact the most popular use for ash lumber commercially is to impersonate oak a task that ash does quite well.