Any Tips on Working Ash?

[Andy Kev.]

Good Morning All,

I've seen pictures of projects which have been made in ash and I fancy having a go at one or two. I've read a couple of times that ash can be a bit difficult to work with hand tools. Is that so? Is there anything which you would recommend in terms of blade angles for planes etc? And finally, how stable is ash? What I mean is, once a piece has been planed flat, does it stay flat?

Thanks in advance,

Andy.

 

[undergroundhunter]

I have no idea about tool angles I just use 25 to 30 degree same as always. The key however in my experience (as with most woods) your tools need to be really sharp and take care in choosing which way you are going to work as all the ash I've worked tairs. I've also found that a no 80 and a selection of scrapers are needed for final finishing.
Hope that helps.

Matt

 

[Corneel]

When you have grain reversals and the wood tends to tearout in these spots, set the capiron very close to the edge. When you still get tearout, set it closer. Other then that it works easily.

 

[bugbear]

The (famous) wide grain is slightly pithy, and won't take a full polish - this isn't a "fault" it's a "feature"

BugBear

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I'm not sure what species of Ash is available in Germany, but the English Ash I've worked with was nice stuff - hard enough to take crisp detail, but not hard enough to be difficult. Sharp tools (as always) help with a crisp finish.

One point to watch with Ash is that on quarter-sawn or near quartered stock, the grain pattern on the radial face is very much coarser than on the tangential face. If you use quartered ash stock for something like table legs, they look quite wierd because of the different grain patterns. It's best for appearance to save quartered stock for components where only the face is visible, and use stock with the grain running nearer 45 degrees for legs and similar. (You might see that for yourself if you have any ash-handled tools - take a look at the endgrain, then at the face grain radial and tangential to the grain direction.)

As far as I know, it makes absolutely no difference to the timber's strength which way round it's used; it's just a visual appearance thing.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thanks for the replies. I'll bear all that in mind when I get hold of some ash.

 

[AndyT]

Just picking up on the question of stability, I've made two bookcases and a wardrobe from ash over the last 25 years and not had any problems of distortion in an ordinary, moderately centrally heated house.

 

[Sean Hellman]

I use a lot of ash green, air and kiln dried, on the whole lovely stuff. Like any wood it can vary in quality. For strength go for fast grow ash, for ease of use with hand tools go for slow grown stuff which will be weaker. Fast grown 8 rings per inch or less, 2-3 rings per inch is the fastest I have worked. Slow grown 12 to 30 rings per inch.