dead Ash trees

redoakneck · Dec 2, 2016

That is what I'm doing with my dead white ash

Wood Doctor · Dec 2, 2016

Al Smith said, "I have no idea how long a large ash will stand."
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Ans. Depends on soil and climate conditions. The one I just harvested for firewood had just fallen over. Land owner said it had been standing dead at least six years in his tree line. Almost all of the wood was solid. The roots had finally given up.

exSW · Dec 2, 2016

redoakneck said:
View attachment 42911

That is what I'm doing with my dead white ash

That looks really good. Makes me wish I saved some.

Al Smith · Dec 3, 2016

FWIW they used to call ash the poor mans oak .
I've used a fair amount of it for window cornaces,wide window sills,a mantle ,interior wood work trim .All of it just aired dried and not one bit of it is or has warped
I'm afraid once it's all gone and if it comes back it will be in my great grand childrens life time if even then .

Of all the local hardwoods and I've worked most of them ash is my favorite .It's cuts out real well ,takes stain very well,just nice stuff .

Al Smith · Dec 3, 2016

That standing dead thing,the last large ash I dropped was one year ago Thanksgiving day while the turkey was in the roaster .It had a bad spot about 60 feet up and the wind took the top .Over 100 feet and I think the logs scaled at around 1500 bd feet .I've seen larger but it was fair sized tree and far to nice to cut into firewood although I did get a cord and a half from the top .
The soil around here is fairly well drained so I suppose that plays a factor in how long they hold up .

Wood Doctor · Dec 5, 2016

There are many firewood buyers and sellers who prefer ash over oak for numerous reasons. Most important is the rapid drying time that ash has -- oak takes forever by comparison. Oak is slightly denser, but ash fires are easier to light and get going faster. When it comes to firewood, I'll take ash any day over oak.

Al Smith · Dec 6, 2016

Back when there were live ash trees you could drop,split and burn it in the same day .Green it splits easy .Standing dead with an axe not so easy .

Wood Doctor · Dec 6, 2016

Al Smith said:
Back when there were live ash trees you could drop, split, and burn it in the same day. Green, it splits easy. Standing dead with an axe, not so easy .

We still have some live ash trees around here. The EAB has not exterminated them all, but it's getting rather serious. Great firewood, I hate to see it disappear. Locust might be it's closest competitor.

Al Smith · Dec 7, 2016

I have some resprouts from a few dead ash dropped 5 years ago that are doing well .In that time they are 12-15 feet tall .The trees were dropped before they were completely dead .
It will be interesting to see if they can go long enough to reseed.The next 5 or so years should tell the tale . However this spring I noticed hundreds of saplings around some of the 100 footers I dropped in the last several years .Probably due sunlight being able to hit the ground where it previously was blocked by the follage from the large trees .They might come back with any luck but it will be over 100 years before any of the 3 feet diameter 100 footers will ever be seen again .

The EAB came in through parts shipped in from some Pacific rim country to an automotive parts plant near Detroit Mich .It killed the majority of every ash tree from Lake Erie to the Ohio river .

Al Smith · Dec 7, 2016

Oh say I just noticed on the above post of the nice table .The end support and one of the legs has been kind of sawn on the quarter .As such the ray sticks out like quarter sawn oak .I have some wood work in one bathroom all cut like that which is hard to tell the diff between it and oak .Took me a lot of sorting to find the planks sawn on the quarter .

Wood Doctor · Dec 8, 2016

Before this thread dies, I thought best to show that I worked with ash a few years ago to make some dandy furniture for both myself and others. Here's one of my original designs:

It holds all the goodies that my dog needs. Two shelves behind the door pull out. Here's the lower one in action:

The internal framing:

Oh, and the barrel full of toys shown in the first Pic is also made out of ash with walnut trim. The staves were all cut individually and then glued up. Thanks for looking.

jake wells · Dec 9, 2016

got a few dead standers here with no bark i usually cut one when i feel like cleaning up a mess
the tops explode into 10 million little pieces.

Al Smith · Dec 9, 2016

I took this down last Thanksgiving day ,100 footer with a wind blown top .It took me until this August to get it cleaned up and until this Oct before I split the cord and a half from the limbs and top .12 hour days seven days a week didn't leave much time to do anything .

exSW · Dec 9, 2016

Al Smith said:
Oh say I just noticed on the above post of the nice table .The end support and one of the legs has been kind of sawn on the quarter .As such the ray sticks out like quarter sawn oak .I have some wood work in one bathroom all cut like that which is hard to tell the diff between it and oak .Took me a lot of sorting to find the planks sawn on the quarter .

If you can get your Sawyer to work with you quartersawn is that hard to do. Just a lot of log rotation. I have some salvaged quarters awn oak here that most likely was pit sawn.

Al Smith · Dec 9, 2016

You're going to get a few quarter sawn on plain sawn lumber ,just not as many .

exSW · Dec 9, 2016

White Oak Rift and Quarter Sawn Engineered Hardwood Flooring ___.png

Or,really big pain

Log Sawing Patterns to Meet Customer Needs _ Trees2Money.jpg

Al Smith · Dec 9, 2016

I've got some pictures on another thread of a few of the projects I used the ash for .I might add not one bit of it was kiln dried .It was stickered and stacked about 5 years inside a building .None of it really warped although a few times it made the planer grunt a little bit planing the first pass because of very slight twist .

BTW very nice joinery on the natural finish stuff in the above post.First class work there .Along with tinkering with old saws and rusty junk wood working is another one of my interests .

danimal · Dec 12, 2016

Al Smith said:
I took this down last Thanksgiving day ,100 footer with a wind blown top .It took me until this August to get it cleaned up and until this Oct before I split the cord and a half from the limbs and top .12 hour days seven days a week didn't leave much time to do anything .

I have the logs from two trees that are larger diameter than that laying in my yard. They are bucked into 10 foot logs that my buddy loaded in his dump trailer. I will noodle them down and throw them in the boiler. Medieval Europe white ash was called the Kingswood. Cuz it burns so clean and hot.

Wood Doctor · Dec 12, 2016

danimal said:
I have the logs from two trees that are larger diameter than that laying in my yard. They are bucked into 10 foot logs that my buddy loaded in his dump trailer. I will noodle them down and throw them in the boiler. Medieval Europe white ash was called the Kingswood. Cuz it burns so clean and hot.

You have to noodle them down? Dang, that's a lot of firewood. I had to do that last spring. I split a dozen half rounds today. Nothing burns better and hotter than split ash.

Those dump trailers are marvelous firewood collectors.

dead Ash trees

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