identifying mystery wood - ash?

aribert · Sep 16, 2019

Greetings all:

I scrounged some shipping dunnage, hardwood boards, a couple of years ago. I use the wood whenever I need a disposable pc of hardwood. Grain and color wise, the wood looks somewhat like White Oak; but it does not smell like either white or red oak - in fact it has a very minimal smell when cut or planed. Might this be ash? I remember years ago hearing someone saying that ash was the poor man's oak. TIA

Finegrain · Sep 16, 2019

Close-up picture of endgrain would be useful for ID.

Regards.

Mike

rons · Sep 16, 2019

You have some species of wood similar to what looks like ash. But the wood is probably from China.
What might be considered a junk piece of wood on one continent is a prize on another continent.

aribert · Sep 18, 2019

Finegrain said:
Close-up picture of endgrain would be useful for ID.

Regards.

Mike

Sorry for the delay in responding. Two endview images and one I ran through the planer a while back.

Sent from my 5049W using Tapatalk

aribert · Sep 18, 2019

car2

I've planed a few of these boards and (in hindsight, after reading your posting twice I realized that)the wood does not tend to tear out the way oak tends to do when I plane it w/ my small hobby planer.

I'm well aware of the Emerald Ash Bore, just another Chinese import, I live about 30 mile from ground zero where it first was discovered. My wife and I planted an ash tree just after the reports of the mysterious dying of ash trees. I treat mine yearly and its kept the borer at bay. There is no containment for the borer - its now killing trees beyond the adjoining states and province of Ontario.

Bob-J-H · Sep 18, 2019

Looks like ash to me. I was in the wood business.

Henry J. · Sep 18, 2019

Ash, for sure. Beautiful wood...I'll soon be doing our kitchen cabinets, ash all the way.

Often, when you cut it and especially if it gets a bit hot, it will smell somewhat like vanilla, a pleasant aroma.

Bob-J-H · Sep 18, 2019

A lady was selling a little table at the swap meet. She told me it was oak. I looked carefully at it and told her it was ash. She called her husband over to tell me it was oak. I explained that ash was not an inferior wood. Fell on deaf ears. Once it is stained it is hard to tell the difference.

Greenwud · Sep 19, 2019

Looks like the stuff I buy as Ash. Locally grown stuff has rings much further apart and thus harder and denser still.
Oak vs Ash is as simple as oak has a ray if quartered or ray fleck if flatsawn, ash has neither.
Most people don't care, it's nice oak.

neilho · Sep 19, 2019

It does look like ash. A density check would differentiate it from oak.

aribert · Sep 19, 2019

Thank you all for your replies.

Modelman · Sep 25, 2019

Greenwud said:
Looks like the stuff I buy as Ash. Locally grown stuff has rings much further apart and thus harder and denser still.
Oak vs Ash is as simple as oak has a ray if quartered or ray fleck if flatsawn, ash has neither.
Most people don't care, it's nice oak.

Ditto on the rays, you can always see them in the end grain of oak, and I can't see them in the pics, so I'd say it's ash. Ash is a nice cabinet wood; looks like oak and easier to work.Not so for structural work as it's not nearly as hard or strong as oak, and has nowhere near the rot resistance of white oak.

Dennis

julkor · Oct 3, 2019

Its texture appears to be ash. It's like one's I see in my home furniture. Ash is cheaper but very useful too.

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identifying mystery wood - ash?

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Finegrain

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Bob-J-H

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