ID Ash and Basswood

[Al_Smith]

Bass wood/linden can get huge .A yard tree will spread out like an oak with a huge canopy .

My ex wifes grandparents had one that was over 5 feet in diameter that  grew in about 60 years that fat .Danged thing cracked the sidewalk and shot big limbs right over the house .Whoever bought the farm when the old folks passed on must have gotten annoyed with it because it's gone now .

[WDH]

As you move up the tree, basswood bark tends to get less rough and a little more smooth.  There can be little bumps or pimples on the upper bark.  That is never the case with ash.  Ash is rough and stays rough. 

[Ron Wenrich]

We get tulip poplar and ash mixed together.  You wouldn't think there is much of a problem since the heartwood of ash is brown and for poplar its green.  But, one of the truckers would unload the logs, and he was color blind.  He couldn't see green. 

We don't get too much basswood.

[SwampDonkey]

I wonder if you could count all the spaced maple and birch stands I thinned over the years as plantations?  The only difference is nature planted them. I'm not talking spacing of large trees, just stuff 2-5 inches diameter and maybe as tall as 25 feet. ;D :D

[WDH]

You just helped mother nature.  If mother nature does it, it is a Forest versus a Plantation. 

[Al_Smith]

About the only thing I've seen "planted " other than southern lumber pines in the Carolinas was hybred poplar .

They got on that kick maybe 25-30 years ago for firewood but it never worked so well .They'd have been better off to just plant corn and call it a day .If nothng else they could have made moonshine out of it .Instead they got spindley little trees about as soft as balsa .

It was one of those brain storms that came from mother earth news .Might not have been a bad idea in areas where it was either too steep to farm or the ground was so poor it wouldn't hardly grow a weed .Poor usage of good arable farm land IMO .

[lumberjack48]

Basswood and Black Ash are completely to different trees here, like night and day, and a White Ash stands out.

I took all the W Ash home for firewood. I've had guys come on the job for firewood, they would start cutting Basswood. They'd tell me how nice the wood was. Then I'd have to explain to-em that the wood they've been cutting isn't worth hauling home. I'd take a little time and show-em what to look for when choosing wood.

I loved cutting Big Basswood, theres nothing that cds up like it. The biggest in i cut was 5', between Dunbar and Twin lakes, that is Basswood country.

[cutterboy]

Well I'll be DanGed! I had a guy stop and ask if I had any basswood lumber for sale. He wanted to make some kind of inside shutters for his windows. He said to buy them it would cost $500 a pair and he has 22 windows so he wants to make them. He said the directions call for basswood.

I think I'm going to log and saw some of my basswood trees and have the lumber on hand.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, on the Canadian Woodworking Forum, someone is making plantation shutters.

[cutterboy]

That's it! Plantation shutters! That's what he told me but I couldn't remember the name.

Thanks SwampDonkey.