Exotic Wood ash

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ASH

Fraxinus spp.
Fraxinus spp. of the family Oleaceae, the Olive family

As this wood has been in use for thousands of years this name also crops up in the names of completely unrelated woods (the same is the case with “oak”, “pine” and “cedar”). Not to be confused with sen, which looks a little like ash, but is something else entirely and which I had mistakenly included in this ash section until I realized my mistake.

My thanks to Paul van Rijckevorsel for this summary

my samples:

white ash plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

white ash plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- color is too dark

white ash plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

another small piece of white ash w/ end grain

a set of white ash slats with accurate color, which I note to be somewhere between the tan of the planks above and the yellow of the veneer directly below.

both side of a sample plank of white ash --- the silvery color is accurately captured

end grain and end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above

both sides and both ends of a wormy ash sample

end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the worm holes are mostly filled with sawdust

both sides and both ends of a black ash sample --- the end grain shots show optical interference that disappears in the enlargements.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of black ash

end grain and end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above --- this end grain closeup does not look like the same species as the black ash sample directly above and since the organization from which this sample was obtained (the IWCS) is unusually sloppy in its sample offerings, it is possible that this is mis-identified.

black ash planks and closeup

black ash planks and closeup --- note that the lower plank is almost perfectly quartersawn at this particular point and shows some nice ray flakes)

two contiguous faces of a small plank of black ash --- as you can see from the end grain shot below, one face is almost perfectly quartersawn and that face has very nice ray flakes.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

Oregon ash sample plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

two veneer samples with very accurate color, which I note to be much lighter than the planks. The first is plain cut and the second is quartersawn.

veneer and closeup --- the color in the pics has just a little too much orange tint, but a slight gold/orange tint was present, unlike the normal yellow/white color. Compare these pics to the pic posted on ebay by the vendor who sold me the veneer. His pic is more accurate than mine --- I'll fix mine one of these days. Maybe. Well, OK, probably not.

the web pic posted by the vendor who sold me the veneer directly above

veneer sheet and closeup --- the color on the distance pic is accurate but the closeup is too white

veneer sheet and closeup

fiddleback ash veneer --- the fiddleback figure is stronger than what shows up in these pics and the pic on the right has just a shade too much red in it

fiddleback ash veneer --- these pics pretty much accurately show the amount of curl

a white ash burl veneer

these sheets are typical of a form of ash that is commonly sold as a burl. It does not have the swirls and eyes that one normally associates with burls, but its designation as a burl is so widespread that I have to believe that it really does come from a burl formation on the trees. Its appearance is that of a really high-grain flat cut variety. For the first pic, the color is slightly too white and the next two are just a little too golden (should be slightly more white). The last one is quite accurate in color.

burl veneer

ash burl veneer bookmatched pair with an interesting design that is easily interpreted as a fiendishly smiling face. I suspect that wood is less golden in color than the pic, and I believe that this is olive ash burl veneer, although it was designated as just ash burl veneer.

web pics

white ash log cross sections

brown ash log cross section

two sets of moistened black ash planks --- these are the planks from which most of my black as samples above were taken and as you will see in my color-accurate pics, there is actually only a tiny hint of orange in these planks, despite what these pics show.

ash end grain

planks identified only as ash

quartersawn ash plank

plank listed as brown ash

white ash planks

curly white ash pen blanks

white ash turning stock --- shows up more clearly in the enlargement

white ash figured plank

curly ash crotch planks that I believe must have been moistened for the pics

both sides of each of 3 curly ash planks, all from the same vendor and all of which appear to have been moistened for the pics

bat blanks and bowl turning blank

white ash veneer

flat cut white ash veneer

quartersawn white ash veneer

figured white ash veneer

ash veneer

flat cut ash veneer

ash veneer, all from the same vendor

ash veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement. These are all from the same vendor as the set directly above.

two sections of the same long ash veneer sheet. Notice how one end has a heavy curl and the other has almost no curl

listed as "brownheart ash veneer", but that just means that there is some heartwood along with the sapwood. Ash heartwood is small and the sapwood is large, so most ash is sapwood. Actually, I'm not entirely clear on this --- I do know that the sap-wood-appearing outer part is normallyh quite large in ash, but I don't think it can all be sapwood in the literal sense because the sap normally runs in just the outer part of the tree. This is what I call "two-tone" ash.

curly ash veneer

curly ash veneer specifically listed as quartersawn although it's pretty clear that none of it is actually quartesawn at all but is rift cut

"fiddleback" ash veneer --- as you can see, ash has a weak fiddleback figure. Japanse ash (see below) has a somewhat stronger fiddleback figure, although it's still weak compared to some woods. Also, it's common for the curl in "curly" and "fiddleback" ash to NOT run the width of the sheet and, technically, this invalidates the "fiddleback" designation, which is used by many vendors simply to indicate a tight curl even if it doesn't run the full width.

fiddleback white ash veneer that is specifically listed as quartersawn (which it is). The last pic is of a very strong fiddleback figure that is relatively rare for the species.

listed as "American" ash veneer --- probably white ash

angel step veneer, quarter matched

"bird's eye" ash veneer --- to the extent that there even IS a bird's eye figure here, it is so faint as to be meaningless. I think this lable was just a marketing ploy

planks, one labeled ash, the next labled white ash. The grey color on the white ash could be correct if these are weathered unfinished planks.

flat cut planks, the last one labeled "Southern White Ash"

quilted ash plank, oiled to show grain better

quartersawn, the first two are veneer and the last one was labled "European"

figured ash plank

figured ash veneer

figured French ash veneer

"Australian", veneer, and a bookmatched "burl" veneer that looks more like a crotch to me

european white ash veneer

European white ash burl veneer

European ash veneer, all from the same vendor

European ash veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement. All of these are from the same vendor as the set directly above. The first of these is obviously curly but was not labled as such.

European ash veneer, quartersawn and with a strong curly figure

wormy ash plank

black ash planks

swamp ash plank

plank listed as Hawaiian ash

burls

black ash burls

both sides of a black ash burl

solid ash burls

white ash burl solid

ash burl veneer

white ash burl veneer

white ash burl veneer with reasonable-looking grain but a color that is undoubtedly incorrectly photographed

a batch of white ash burl veneer pieces, all of which are book matched

brown ash veneer

listed as Australian ash veneer --- I'm not sure about these and will do more research

bowl

thin wood for a guitar back

Ash veneer has the interesting attribute that the grain lines are translucent, which shows up very nicely in these ash ceiling light covers from a hotel in Jersey City, NJ. On the left is a pic using the flash, and on the right is a different cover with no flash used.

ash table and closeup --- sent in by a correspondent who asked me to help identify the wood, which had been mistakenly identifed as oak.