Cut some more Ash today

[boatman]

I cut a few bug killed Ash today. About 8, 16ft 18"DBH. I believe it is Black Ash.

Aside from a couple of wagon tongues that we need, I would like to hear suggestions on how to mill this wood. I need to know what sizes are popular when people buy Ash for projects or hobbies?

No reason to let it rot in the woods

We have quite a few clumps of Ash here and if there is a market It could keep me busy for a while.

Also cut a 20" Cherry with some great curves in it. I am going to chainsaw mill that one.

 

[BobL]

Sounds good - did you take any pics?

 

[boatman]

I don't often think of taking pictures when I am having fun. I did get one cell picture as we were leaving for lunch. Then it started to rain so we spent the rest of the day shoveling manure, cleaning out a barn for the heifers we are not breeding this year.

I'll be back to the trees next weekend and we will pull them out with horses. Logs to the Lucas and tops to the wood splitter.

Might try out that slabbing attachment on the Cherry.

I know from "experience" that chainsaw mills are capable of cutting curves. If I set up a spiral guide to follow the curve and twist in this Cherry, will the saw be able to follow it? How tight a curve can be cut?

Maybe tomorrow I'll stick my saw in some old logs and see what I can free hand.

Or maybe I will have to cut off short slabs and whittle it down, then hand plane to finish?

 

[820wards]

I cut a few bug killed Ash today. About 8, 16ft 18"DBH. I believe it is Black Ash.

Aside from a couple of wagon tongues that we need, I would like to hear suggestions on how to mill this wood. I need to know what sizes are popular when people buy Ash for projects or hobbies?

No reason to let it rot in the woods

We have quite a few clumps of Ash here and if there is a market It could keep me busy for a while.

Also cut a 20" Cherry with some great curves in it. I am going to chainsaw mill that one.

My buddy and I milled an ash tree and he made some mallets from some of the wood. He gave some away as gifts. He planed thin boards, glued them together which made them strong and then made the mallets. I'll take a picture of the one he made for me and post it tomorrow.

Here are those pictures of the ash mallet my friend made me from a tree I mill.

jerry-

 

[qbilder]

On the farm we always cut ash for fencing & barn siding. It's always straight grain, strong & stable.

 

[boatman]

Barn siding? I wonder is it would hold up as siding in Michigan? What's the weather like there?

 

[qbilder]

The farm is in Wisconson, near Appleton. Holds up well enough.

 

[johncinco]

Ash flooring is awesome. Mill it 5/4 and then you have plenty to work with to get it into flooring shape.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I also have been cutting firewood, and bringing home cherry and ash logs,

Pulling doubles allows me to bring home some pretty good loads each trip.

Anyway, i mill both the ash and cherry into 5/4 boards.

Rob

 

[TSRuff]

Aside from a couple of wagon tongues that we need, I would like to hear suggestions on how to mill this wood. I need to know what sizes are popular when people buy Ash for projects or hobbies?

Boatman - See my thread here about milling ash:http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=152205

For furniture I like to end up with either a 4/4, 5/4 or 6/4 finished board. The thicker boards make excellent table tops and I have used boards of this thickness to make entertainment centers that can easily support a 150 lb TV. I also mill at 12/4 for making table legs and other larger structural members on projects.

As far as how to mill, I am a big fan of both plain and quarter sawing the ash. What you see in the above post was all quarter sawn, very stable with great straight grain to it. However, when you plain saw some of the less straight pieces you can end up with some wild grain that looks spectacular. On one table I built I alternated quarter sawn and plain sawn boards, each about 6" wide. When the table was finished you would never have guessed that they both came from the same tree.

We have a lot of ash on our property in northern Minnesota and I take 1-2 trees each fall. One of my favorite woods to work with, and deserving of much more than the normal utilitarian uses that most people cut it for. I will say when the wood has dried that it looses almost all of the contrast and turns completely white, but once you have put a coat of clear poly on it the grain pops back to life.

 

[boatman]

Thanks for the link,

So far what we have milled has been used to make stalls in the draft animal barn.

This weekend after the firewood is done we will continue cutting Ash. There was a lot of wind here last week and quite a few blowdowns.

The Ash I got hung up in a Maple didn't blow down though.