Hi all,
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I’m planning to build a new bathroom vanity for my home. It will be build out of a combination of ash plywood and solid ash. Since I have never worked with ash before, I like some input from those of you who have some experience working with this wood.
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I have already made a few test cross cuts and rips, I have hand planed the wood (with much tear out) as well as running it through my planer and joiner. So far my observations are that ash prefers to be machined but not hand planed.
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I would appreciate some words of wisdom.
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Jay
Replies
Over the years I have made many pieces of furniture from ash and have found it to be a lot like working with red oak. It is sensitive to grain direction when planning, jointing and routing. Air dried seems to be less brittle and has less tear out than kiln dried. Some boards are very grainy and the next will have very fine grain lines so select your boards to match when gluing up. I don't mind working ash I just don't like the color when finished natural. I have never had the request to stain a piece of furniture made from it so I cannot comment on the staining ability. Most pieces of furniture were modern style furniture and client wanted a white wood with grain, not plain like birch .
I have worked a lot with ash, in lumber and veneer. One has to pay attention to grain, but otherwise it's a nice wood to work with. Hand cutting dovetail joints presents no particular problem other than the obvious openness of its grain is problematic for pencil marks, etc. I like its natural color but it takes stain much like the oaks.
Do you have any specific question?
Thanks for the info, and yes I do have a question.
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The vanity will have an open lattice shelf. I milled the ash to ¾ X ¾, it milled very nicely. I plan to router lap joints to make the shelf. I have good router bits, would you recommend using a higher or lower router speed?
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Again thanks (to all) for the help.
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Jay
Router speed depends on the bit type and size. Generally you want the highest speed that is safe. When in doubt about the finish a process leaves on the wood make test cuts. Your direct experience far exceeds any advice you will read here. I once put a new large diameter bit in one of my routers. The instant I turned it on I knew it was too much too fast. I put the bit in another router with variable speed.... on slow. I increased speed until I had it right.
Keep your router moving when using any edge forming bit otherwise burn marks will appear.Ash is nice to work with. I prefer it to oak for working and looks.
I did two bathroom vanity's , stairway, bifold doors and casings with it in my house last year and it worked out very well. It is fairly easy to be creative with th ash figure and colors.
http://www.superwoodworks.com/Projects/Stairs.htm
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http://www.superwoodworks.com/Projects/BiFoldDoors.htm
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http://www.superwoodworks.com/Projects/Vanity.htm
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http://www.superwoodworks.com/Projects/SharpeningStation.htmView Imagehttp://www.superwoodworks.com
Nice looking stuff - the pieces and the wood. I just had a large ash tree cut down to make room for a new shop. The crown was rotting and losing limbs. However, the butt yielded a gorgeous solid log 13 feet long and 3 feet in diameter with almost no taper. It's sitting at a nearby mill, ends coated, where it will be milled in 2 weeks. I am planning on mostly 4/4, and some 5/4 and 8/4. I don't know what I'll be doing with it yet - I'll be air drying it so I have plenty of time to think about it.Okay, this is off the topic of the original question, but I had to tell someone.
Off the topic...yeah.
Good story..you bet!
You won't have any problem finding what to do with it when the time comes.http://www.superwoodworks.com
Besure to cut a good supply of 8/4 stock. Use it for bookmatched panels in rasised panel cabinet doors, and you'll end up with some beautiful cabinets.
Good suggestion. Thanks.
Garry,
Clean workshop!
This is also off topic...how do you like your Varitas sharpener. I just purchased one and I think it's a great machine.
Jay
I like the sharpener OK. I mostly just use it for new chisels and plane irons to get the flat and the bevels polished then I still hone to 3000 with wet or dry sandpaper to achieve the fnal edge.
Garryhttp://www.superwoodworks.com
Jay,
I've made a few ash items from air dried timber and I agree with the posters that its a generally easy wood to work with but often results in pieces that, no matter how well designed, look a bit boring. There's something about the blandness of ash that makes you want to stain it.
It stains easily, although I found water-based rather than oil-based to give a more even effect for some reason. I've seen ash made to look not just like oak (my usual staining route) but also like Wenge (a nice chocolate colour). There was a fashion for black-stained (ebonised) ash in the 70s but this became a cliche. It might work in a vanity unit, though, if you didn't ebonise everything.
Through-and-through cut boards tend to be more attractive than quarter-sawn, especially if you take care to try and match the grain a bit along plank edges.
Two other things you might like to consider about the wood:
1 If you can find olive ash - a darker version of the heartwood that does indeed resemble olive - this is a much better looking ash to use for eye-catching furniture. If you can find through-and-through cut boards with olive ash in the middle and a transition to the normal creamy colour on the outside edges, such boards make very fine top surfaces (tables and the like).
2 Ash steams and bends very easily. If you fancy a go at something with a few curved elements, try it out.
I have worked with ash alot, sharp tools are a must, the freshly machines edges are like knives, yeilding lots of skin cuts. It does not take dark stains well, because there is generally alot of difference between the early wood and late wood. Watch out for glass worm defects-iregularities in the grain that look like water drips. A cheap alternative is to buy ash strips from your hardwood broker.
Good luck
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