Gotta love milling ash.

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2012, 09:57:57 AM

What you have Al is curly ripple. I have a piece right here that is quartered and it's rippled. I don't have it stained, it's just a UV clear Varethane so it does not come out dark. It isn't ray fleck. Your photo is seriously out of focus, hit the macro button on the camera when your closer than 4 feet.

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2012, 10:10:55 AM

I fiddled with the contrast to bring it out a little darker, But the rays are too minute to produce anything like this. It was not easy planing either as it had some tear out from the curly grain. We even see some birdseye figure in ash once in awhile.

Al_Smith · November 05, 2012, 10:17:01 AM

It's an old HP 945 camera .I never could get the pot licker to work right ,macro or not .

Okay curly ripple it is .What causes that ?

All the base trim in the kitchen is made exactly like that piece under the island .It all came from the same tree .What I did notice on both the trim plus the short pieces of the mantle cut on that center deal it doesn't take stain like the plane sawn pieces .That's all red mahogany stain ,same brand same can .

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2012, 10:31:39 AM

If I knew what caused it, I'd have the $million dollar recipe. :D Kinda like Jim King's experiment with making burls, God rest his soul. We'll not likely hear about the results. :-\

I've got lots of other pieces around that are quartered and no sign of nothing, just all regular ash grain. Figured wood is funny stuff. It could be in the but log or on the end for a ways, then the rest of the sticks, nothing. Could go in a ways or from the centre out and not all the way through.

Al_Smith · November 05, 2012, 11:22:02 AM

I can't tell much of anything until it goes through the planer .I don't know if I have more of that stuff or not .

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2012, 11:42:59 AM

Same here with hard maple I bought. Never seen anything until it was planed and revealed all kinds of stuff.

MReinemann · November 05, 2012, 06:07:58 PM

Quote from: samandothers on November 04, 2012, 07:33:53 PM
Tell me about your drying rack. Why the gravel underneath? Also I notice drips on the gravel under the beams your lumber is drying on. What is that?

Those are 4x8's to support the floor with the 2x12's on top for the floor. I threw the gravel down then put the blocks on top of the tamped stone. Figure this is good enough for a 1 story "shed". Just got done setting tubes for my 20x32 pole barn and didn't feel like digging and pouring cement again for this project. The drips are from "uncle Matt's" special wood preservative.

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2012, 06:39:31 PM

:D :D 8)

Low and behold Al, as I remembered a photo in my Wood Tech book, of a split block of white ash with curly grain. For your viewing pleasure.

Al_Smith · November 05, 2012, 08:39:41 PM

So then I take it ash can produce highly sought after grain patterns like maple with it's tiger ,fiddle back and curly .That I didn't know .

I've got quite a big laying in logs and several more big ones to take down .This might turn out to be interesting .Gotsta get that mill done .

samandothers · November 05, 2012, 09:46:28 PM

Missed the whole thing about that being the shed. :-\
I thought it was a drying rack with preservative on the wood and gravel was to help keep bugs at bay. :

Thanks for setting me straight!

GeorgeK · November 30, 2012, 09:45:32 PM

Just cut down a large ash tree in a friends yard today about 26 inches around at the base. If we Mill it what thickness andsize boards should we make? Wondering what would be comman. Sounds like it would look good quarter sawn. Lastly who would you call to see if it would make vaneer?

Magicman · November 30, 2012, 09:56:42 PM

Are you asking about a yard tree that is 8¼" diameter?? Did you mean 26" around or around 26" across?

GeorgeK · November 30, 2012, 10:03:28 PM

Sorry 26 across

Magicman · November 30, 2012, 10:27:38 PM

OK. I still can not offer any advice or answer your question, but I do know the tree size.

beenthere · November 30, 2012, 10:43:39 PM

Quote from: GeorgeK on November 30, 2012, 09:45:32 PM
Just cut down a large ash tree in a friends yard today about 26 inches around at the base. If we Mill it what thickness andsize boards should we make? Wondering what would be comman. Sounds like it would look good quarter sawn. Lastly who would you call to see if it would make vaneer?

Common thickness would be 4/4 or sawn to 1 1/8" rough. Stack the boards on stickers for drying.
Apparently no one has a particular use for the wood, so go with flat sawn 4/4.

This would be my recommendation, and I wouldn't quarter saw it as there are no rays to give the flecks such as oak.

Being a yard tree, expect some iron. And being a yard tree, likely not a veneer log but can't judge that without seeing all the bark and ends up close.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · November 30, 2012, 11:36:12 PM

Ash makes good firewood. It splits very easily and I love watching the rays come off of it in my fireplace.

Al_Smith · December 01, 2012, 06:57:07 AM

Yes as a rule it splits easily however on this EAB killed stuff it does something I can't explain .That wood is like granite .

I've been on vacation the whole month of November and have averaged 2-3 maybe 4 days a week workng in the woods felling dead ash trees .Small trees about 16-18 inches at the cut .Some of that stuff is so hard I can't even get a steel wedge started with an 8 pound hammer .Bounces an axe like driving into the rubber treads of an Abrams tank .

In my life time I don't ever recall ash being that hard .

bandmiller2 · December 01, 2012, 07:49:37 AM

Al,them little blighters most do something to let all the moisture out of the cells.If you stand the chunks on end and take your chainsaw and make a couple of inch cut on the edge it gives the wedge someplace to get started.I use that method to split large pine chunks, that surprisingly, resist the wedge. Frank C.

Al_Smith · December 01, 2012, 01:24:04 PM

Oh I've got a hydraulic splitter so it's no problem except my bud the tree trimmer is using it along with his own at the moment .

He procrastinates almost to the last minute getting his firewood stores split for sale . Since tree work slacks off a tad come late fall if there's a few hours left in the day when he only has a partial day for his crew they fill out the day in the wood pile .

I was only trying to whittle those 90 pound rounds down a tad so I could lift them without blowing my guts out which would not be good at all .Oh there was a day I'd have ripped those rounds with a chainsaw if nothing else but I can wait for the splitter.--see mellow as a old shoe --- :D

Al_Smith · December 01, 2012, 01:35:19 PM

Well surprisingly that ash is not popcorn dry at all .It holds water about like oak only certainly not as much .

It's some strange stuff .The wind can howl and blow limbs galore out of a hickory tree or oak but those two -three years old EAB ash,grave yard dead shed nary a branch .I'd almost think they are petrified .Tough on chains too .You won't run a tank full in a saw without getting out the file .Lawdy you should hear the treemen complain about them . :D