Is white Ash a nightmare to work with?

[custard]

I appreciate you have just bought the bandsaw, but it sounds a very similar spec and size to my Axy hbs250n I recently sold for a bigger Makita. Unfortunately, with a 250W motor (like my old Axy) I found that even with a decent Tuffsaw blade it just really struggled with hardwoods (White French Oak and French Ash) of any reasonable depth.

I don't think it is 250W, I think it's 350W or 1/2HP. Irrelevant really, because whatever it is I'm confident it's up to the challenge.

I worked in a workshop once that had a giant bandsaw, plus a little Record 250 permanently rigged with a narrow blade for fine work. Except whenever there was a queue for the big bandsaw we'd all just stroll over to the Record 250 and use that instead. It's perfectly man enough for the work the OP has in mind, he doesn't need more kit, he just needs to learn how to get the best from the kit he already has.