Oak vs. Ash

[Mark Singer]

Brian, I just got done milling up about 90 brd/ft. of Ash for my stair project. Personally, I think it's just a tad tighter grained than Oak and should require a bit less filling for the writing surface. There are the typical "gotchya's", similar to Oak, though. Be very careful surfacing it, as it has a tendency to tear out, especially when grain changes direction. Also, it's not any easier on the old muscles! I worked 8/4 rough and that stuff is heavy!!!

Didn't like my fire pole idea?

[John Miliunas]

Didn't like my fire pole idea?

Oh, I like the idea just fine but, after checking with the building inspector, he said we weren't zoned for having a strip joint! Go figure....

[Brian Hale]

The top left is 52" and the top right 53.5"


From my experience, making them identical would significantly reduce the amount of work and potential for mistakes. Even if you need to add a filler strip to the right and make them both 52".

Good catch George! We haven't made a final decision on the design but we have talked about those 2 top cabinets and you're right, making them the same size is simple enough and will make cutting the parts much eaiser.

Thanks
Brian

[Jim Jakosh]

Ash does look a lot like oak but it is heavier.

[Matt Day]

Jim,
If he does need some wood, you'll need to fire up the flux capacitor and head back to 2005.

[Yonak Hawkins]

I worked 8/4 rough and that stuff is heavy!!!

White ash is quite heavy. I've been working quite a bit lately, however, with Georgia grown 8/4 green ash and I find it's quite light weight. Even though it's classified at about .53 sg, I believe what I'm working with is way below .5. It cuts like a dream, sands easy and has a very tight grain. It looks less like oak, however.

[Chris Fournier]

I really enjoy using white ash in my shop and if you take the time you can make it look as light or dark as you want. Here is some white ash that I dyed and glazed to get a rich dark brown effect. I like the open grain and kept it that way. It is an underutilized domestic hardwood and the pricing reflect it too. Shhh!IMG_20140427_101537.jpgIMG_20140427_101524.jpgPreviously posted pictures, pun intended but they make my point.

[lowell holmes]

Ash furniture was sometimes known as Golden Oak. There are a lot of ash trees int Texas forests. A lot of it ends up in the furniture shops on the East coast.

When kitchen cabinets were mostly "job Built", ash was the premium wood in South central Texas. See the description for ash at the link below.

http://www.lewislp.com/woodchar.asp

[Yonak Hawkins]

http://home.comcast.net/~tom.hoffman/3workbench.htm

That's a beautiful work bench, Tom.

[Larry Edgerton]

The top left is 52" and the top right 53.5"


From my experience, making them identical would significantly reduce the amount of work and potential for mistakes. Even if you need to add a filler strip to the right and make them both 52".

I disagree. Not only that it makes it easier, but also that it is less work. How could it be less work? So you take a custom piece made to fit and reduce it down to Home Depot standards with fillers? Not in my world.

On the Ash/Red Oak question I hands down prefer Ash in almost every circumstance.

Larry

[Ole Anderson]

I could be wrong, but I believe the good deals on Ash are due to an abundance of supply of trees due to the EAB killing a lot of trees and making them available to the sawyers. Also, the Ash I have used has a grain pattern similar to Oak, but LESS pronounced and much less porous.

[Prashun Patel]

Ash finishes up more yellow; oak finishes up more pink. Stained they're good substitutes for each other. I don't know whether qs ash is prone to the nice flecking you can get in QSO.

[David Weaver]

When ash became abundant here, it was available cheap, but the suppliers who sell lumber retail never really dipped that much and the specialty places that like to make a lot of money on wood stopped carrying it entirely.

I have thus never been able to get it cheaply, at least not cheap compared to what I'd expect. Which is probably a suggestion of how much of the cost of lumber is in the hauling and preparation and markup vs. the raw material.