I have a 40 tree portable ash job to saw. I looked at the standing timber today they are nice trees.
I have not sawn an ash log in my life. I have knocked out a few hundred thousand feet of oak though.
Are there any major concerns headed my way?
Many thanks.
I find ash can often have stress so be ready for moving cants. It also tends to gum up my blades so use plenty of lube to clean them. It is very straight grained and can tend to want to split easily. I use 4 degree doublehard WM blades and am well pleased with their performance on ash.
IMHO it is beautiful wood and the smell reminds me of an old bee tree. Good luck.
Yes, can expect lots of stress, maybe some won't have it. 4 degree bands and be able to keep them clean. These are the thoughts I have about ash, too.
Smallish logs are the ones that give you the most grief. I had ash lumber, near the pith, split before I finished the cut, but that is about the worst of it. Box in the pith if you can, and cut it out of the lumber. I find it saws nice with WM Turbo 7 blades.
I have found that it cuts a heck of a lot easier than white oak, it's softer. I love the wood, nice grain. Yes, the logs I have done have some stress, but I don't have enough experience to know if it is because the way they grew, or just the wood in general.
It can end check badly. End seal the logs as soon as bucked, and boards if you trim them.
Maybe I've been lucky but I have not had much problems with movement on sawn ash. Maybe because the trees were all straight and clear of limbs for 1st 40 feet.
It makes good stock for timber frames if you box the heart.
Powderpost beetles love it.
Keep the heart centered in the cant while you're sawing. Turn more often if you have to in order to keep the timber spring (stress) centered. This will eliminate a lot of the board splitting. Run water on your blade to stop sap build up.
It is very dusty and the sawdust seems to stick to you. A dust mask can be a good idea. Plenty of lube to keep the band clean.
I've cut a lot of Ash in the last 3 years on my LT15, which may not be considered "a lot" to guys with Hydraulic mills. I've probably milled 200 sticks? Just a guess. This included butt logs up to 36" and also included branch logs down to 8" dia. Those were cut with flats on two sides. Larger ones that would make jacket boards were kept.
I have NOT noticed much stress or movement in all the Ash I've cut. I have been attributing that to the face that most were dead on the stump and dried some in addition to how dry ash is to start with. I'm assuming that process actually helped to make the wood more stable. I've had logs that were very dry and logs that were still pretty wet in the middle, but usually the outside was more dry. There was a gradient of moisture of course. Very few were so green so as they were cut with a full canopy. Most have very little or no leafing out when they were cut. All of them were killed by the emerald Ash borer.
I always used a 4 degree double hard blade. I run water only for lube, though adding a few drops of Dawn doesn't hurt.
I've cut mostly beams and produced a lot of 5/4 jacket boards(boards that come from everything outside of the beams. I did cut about 6000 BF or 2x8's for T&G last winter and didn't see significant movement. All machined out well after drying.
I've seen guys here post about powerpost beetles loving Ash, but I see their frass piles below my oak, and I'm not sure I ever see it from my Ash. Just the same, the 2x8 T&G mentioned above was treated with Permachink's shellguard (alcohol borate)
I recently had a job that included three ash logs out of a single tree. Two sawed just like a green red or white oak. One was ugly, lots of stress and lots of flipping 180 degrees. I boxed the heart and actually threw it in the burn pile. The 4x6 heart was moving as I ditched it. The other two logs sawed fine.
I've sawn Green Ash, it is one of my least favorite to saw. I attribute most of the problems to the very low m.c. of the wood, it takes the edge off of blades fast and it takes a sharp blade to saw it straight. The sawdust is nasty dry stuff, it irritates my eyes. I also found some "timber break" in it, once you get the log opened up you find it is fractured👎 Aside from all of that, it made nice lumber. We also have black ash, that's a completely different animal. Saws beautifully and pleasant to work with all around. I doubt you have black ash down there, though.
Where abouts in SW Missouri? I'm in Springfield, just getting into wood cutting. Would like to see a mill in action if your close by.
Ash is one of the most splintering woods I've sawn. When it's green its not too bad, but will occasionally try to splinter and stab you for the fun of it..
When its dry, it really turns mean, and I can't remeber the last time I handled dry ash, planed or unplaned, when it didn't splinter or stab me somehow. Often it will go through a glove like a porcupine. Had some cut the palm of a glove a couple days ago when edging. Don't push boards around with your thigh, or slide them through your gloves when stacking or coming off the mill. If you see a punji stick developing on the edge of a sawn board, whack it off with a hatchet immedialty.
I know a guy who was planing ash, no big deal, done it a thousand times, when a small splinter just grabbed the cuff of his glove and split off into a spike, where ran down inside the cuff of his glove and then through his hand, requiring significant wood from hand surgery.
Ash is beautiful stuff, but it's cranky, so just watch it so it don't get ya.
It is like sawing immature red oak. Also has pitch like conifer and can gum up the saw. Sometimes mixing a few maple logs in the run cleans off the gum.
Thanks
Stress in ash🤔(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36929/29A1E8B2-E181-410E-AFAB-8311EF3757BC.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1543326764)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36929/DEEB3F46-2FF5-44F0-BE88-9E2A5EF324D8.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1543326639)
Quote from: YellowHammer on November 26, 2018, 11:33:33 PM
Ash is one of the most splintering woods I've sawn. When it's green its not too bad, but will occasionally try to splinter and stab you for the fun of it..
When its dry, it really turns mean, and I can't remeber the last time I handled dry ash, planed or unplaned, when it didn't splinter or stab me somehow. Often it will go through a glove like a porcupine. Had some cut the palm of a glove a couple days ago when edging. Don't push boards around with your thigh, or slide them through your gloves when stacking or coming off the mill. If you see a punji stick developing on the edge of a sawn board, whack it off with a hatchet immedialty.
I know a guy who was planing ash, no big deal, done it a thousand times, when a small splinter just grabbed the cuff of his glove and split off into a spike, where ran down inside the cuff of his glove and then through his hand, requiring significant wood from hand surgery.
Ash is beautiful stuff, but it's cranky, so just watch it so it don't get ya.
If you want to talk splinters, eastern hemlock.........
Right on th money 69bronco
Brings back bad memories
I'm still pretty new to milling but after reading people complaining about sawing ash I was very happy when I milled about 1000bf of it this fall and it behaved very well. Not much movement at all from the cants or boards. It was very dusty though and did put a little buildup on the blade if I didn't use lube.
Over half of that was from a couple large, clear, and straight logs and the rest came from less perfect logs that are destined to be flooring in my house. The ones for flooring air dried with very little defect and have been processed into strips. One of the logs had a lot of cracking as it got close to the heart so there will be a lot of waste from those boards but most were fine.
I believe we have both green and white ash here and I'm not sure which I milled (both for all I know).
Alan
Bruner. Not far from Springfield. Stop by anytime
Keep it thick seems to be ok...my 2x4 framed wall on the barn build danced all over the place when put together green. I would stay away from framing until it has a chance to dry.
I spent 3 days sawing ash a couple weeks, very few had stress. Steve
Quote from: OffGrid973 on November 27, 2018, 08:39:38 PM
Keep it thick seems to be ok...my 2x4 framed wall on the barn build danced all over the place when put together green. I would stay away from framing until it has a chance to dry.
Be sure to pre-drill before nailing too as ash is so straight grained it splits easily.
If you can get a nail in dry ash. Steve
With the imminent arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer, my forester has suggested that I mill some of it myself. Much of what I have in the woodlot is 20+" in diameter and I'm too old to deal with that weight, with a manual mill (LT15). I will tackle some smaller ones as I do like the finished wood. The market in VT is low as everybody is worried about the EAB. Time will tell!
Ash can be very dusty!!
Sawing ash on a woodmizer - YouTube (https://youtu.be/mrF1cUVuWc8)
Well, dusty, yeah.
After 330 logs the dust starts to pile up now, doesn't it?
:D :D
So, here's the trick.
Fire up your snow blower and start at that man door at the back, and blow all that sawdust outta there.
You'll be finished in five minutes.
. . . . :o :o
Hmm snow blower say_what
That would get er done in a hurry :D
Dang....I sold my snowthrower. :D :D
I never even thought of that one..... :o