A couple of years back I bought some ash from a one man sawmill in E.Texas. He sold me beside the regular ash, some “white ash”. I had never heard of white ash, I checked it out in the wood books it is native to E. Texas. It is a soft wood like white pine but no grain to speak of, very lite weight. I have made some beautiful molding with it, routes very clean and smooth, no burn. I have about used it all and have inquired about buying some more. Nobody knows what I’m talking about. Anybody know anything about white ash and where I can get some more.
God Bless and Happy Holidays
les
Replies
Hey Les:
I read your profile but It does'nt say where you are from, But I live Up here in Ontario where White Ash is very common along with all the other colors of the Rainbow, But according to Audubon, White Ash is common from Texas to the Atlantic seaboard in the east and New York state in the north to Florida in the south so just keep asking all the mills in your area.Or better yet educate yourself on how this particular wood looks because you would'nt believe how many Sawyers incorrectly identify certain wood species simply because the guy that taught him was mistaken.Good Luck
Les, the wood you are describing here as "white ash" doesn't sound at all like any of the true ashes (genus: Fraxinus.) They are all ring-porous woods with rather bold figure and they're all much heavier than white pine. Sometimes the southern pumpkin ash (Fraxinus profunda), if grown in swampy soil, produces buttress stock that is soft, spongy and bland colored (sort of buff tan), but it still has a noticeable ash-like figure. I'm at a loss for what wood you might have? By your description, it sounds more like basswood.
Jon,
I'm no wood expert, but I had the same reaction; that doesn't sound like any variety of ash to me.
I remember reading somewhere that people could send wood samples to the Forest Products Laboratory for identification. I just looked on their web site and didn't see anything about that service. Do you know if my information is out of date, or am I thinking of some other organization?
Dunc, The FPL doesn't advertise the service...otherwise they'd get swamped, but they still do it. Dr. Regis Miller is in charge of that department at the FPL in Madison, Wisconsin, and he's probably the best in the world at IDing wood samples...Although, if this is a domestic species, I could probably ID it, or Les could take it to the Forestry department of the nearest University down there.
Edited 12/22/2002 3:29:02 PM ET by Jon Arno
Hey guys thanks for the response, I think I will send a sample to Texas A&M. My youngest daughter worked for the forestery department for a couple of years doing GIS work while she attended school there. I use to go up there quite often and knew the head of that dept. I shoudda thought of that.
God Bless and Merry Christmas
From Baytown Texas
les
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