Educate me 'bout ash trees

[Skeeter52]

Ash rules here for firewood where we have corn fields and wind turbins.Most i believe is old growth white ash. They are in what we call groves,surrounding the acreges,or the buffer zone between yard,pasture,and cropland.I have yet to see a tree straight for more than 25 feet.If you would like i can trade # for # for cottonwood

 

[MO-Iron]

I was taught to tell the difference between white and green ash by the bud scar. The bud scar will make a horse shoe shape around the bud on a white ash. The bud scar on a green ash will be shield shaped just under the bud.

Mo-Iron

 

[forestryworks]

Easiest way to tell the difference between green and white ash is by looking at the bud scars.

Wood wise, they're the same tree.

 

[CRThomas]

Ash is the wood of Kings

First cut you Ash in the winter and let lay. Your white Ash will have a limb and straight under it another limb growing. Ash burns well. Burns clean. Is at about 22. I can dry winter cut down to under 15 percent over night in my shop. In my kiln 24 hours I can pull it down to where no reading on the meter out side split agin get 8 percent on inside. I only sell white Ash my customers love it. I go by people's homes that burn green oak and the black stuff pouring down the chimney and smoke just boiling. But what do I know. I run out of Ash I had some Oak I split it took it my customers they told me they would wait till I got some of that Kings wood. Me and my wife only burn Ash. ash when dry is very light. Most of my customers are old. If you get Oak down to 25 percent you have done a good job. I give wood away that I get from tree jobs for free I only keep the Ash. I wish I could put some pictures on here to show you how simple a operation I got. I can go out at three in the morning and by six thirty have cord split and a rank wrapped. Deliver before lunch eat lunch with my wife one I'm home if got everybthing caught up in the big chair with my grand daughter watching sponge bob square pants or I Carly at $5.00 a bundle for 30 bundles delivered or 10 bundles for $7.00 a piece. Take one of the nice day to drop some Ash. You run short on firewood Ash will not let you down. I am sure somebody will say I wrong but try it. Cut your Ash when the saps down. I have put different test on here before and you might find them later

 

[CRThomas]

Info

Like the others have said, most I've run into has been white ash but it's great firewood. I've never tried burning it green but it certainly looks and feels (weight) ready to burn very soon after splitting.

I'm actually about to start in on some ash in the next week or so as I work through my stacks.

If you are going to burn fresh cut Ash let it set over night with a fan and do not chock the stove down let it burn wide open

 

[firewood guy]

the trees aren't *literally* made of ash. You have to burn it first, then you get ash.

And the ash from all of them, once burned, is white (to grey). You could imagine my disappoinment the first time i burned green ash. I was going to use it for st. Patrick's day but then i learned... The name doesn't mean what you think it means.

har har!!

 

[sawriffic]

nothing like a good piece of ash!

 

[Arbonaut]

Pioneer's Friend

Ash was known as the pioneer's friend back when that mattered. Frontier people had difficulty getting established in the days of slow travel with enough spare time to season wood. Besides all the things you could make from it, Ash was the easiest wood to fall, split, ignite and heat/cook with while still green than anything else around. Still is. And with the emerald ash beetlemania, it's highly available. I say if you want to get rid of some bug, BURN it. Some of us midwest Morel Mushroom pros have noticed, Green and White ash trees falling prey to The Beetle, or other natural causes, have replaced the missing dead American Elm as spore producers.

 

[CRThomas]

Ash

Like the others have said, most I've run into has been white ash but it's great firewood. I've never tried burning it green but it certainly looks and feels (weight) ready to burn very soon after splitting.

I'm actually about to start in on some ash in the next week or so as I work through my stacks.

As people say Ash burns good green but it's best cut in the winter when sap is down. You can cut your Ash in the winter time when all the sap is down and just leave them lay till you can get to them. Just play with Ash as you burn it you proble not burn any thing else. It is so easy to work with. Where I live at every body burns Oak so I have all the Ash I want. Ash is less work about 22 btu. Splits easy. Drys fast. Burns good. Light in weight. A rank weighs about 1000 to 1200 lbs. A half ton pickup if wood is dry you can stack it to the top of the truck cab. Later

 

[CRThomas]

Ash

Thanks HD, that's the best one of those on-line ash ID pages yet... nice pictures. I'm confident now that all the trees I've identified as ash in my woodlot are of the White Ash species. Although the link you provided has me wondering about some (unidentified trees) I have growing in a low wet area on the north-west side. It has a small water-way running through it during spring/early summer, and on a wet year it will run all summer. I don't spend much time down in there because most of the trees are small(ish) and undergrowth is thick... but, your link has me wondering about black and/or green ash as a candidate, especially the picture of shaggy bark on the Black Ash.

Funny how old dogs can learn new tricks... I never even considered ash as good firewood until I joined AS, so I've never paid much attention to it. I've now also learned that all those trees I've glanced at over the years in woodlots, yards, parks and wherever, muttering, "yep, that's an ash tree" have probably all been White Ash... and I may have actually misidentified some Green and Black Ash along river bottoms as walnut?? by using a quick glance at bark and
canopy in passing.

I split Ash which has been cut in the winter time split it in to 16 inch long 4 to 6 inchs across. Stack it in my shop with a 6 ft fan on low my shop stay at about 64 degrees it will be ready to burn in a week. When splitting it would be 30 to 35 percent after a week 10 percent split a piece inside would be 13 to 15 percent. If I fill my kiln up and crank up the heat and air every thing is under 15 in 24 hours. You won't do that with Oak. Later

 

[CRThomas]

Logs

I sure hope you are taking a log out of the bottoms of those oak,ash and cherry logs.For what they are worth in logs,you could get firewood,cut,split and delivered.i know here in upstate ny,a cherry log that size,even if it was a number 2 with gum and a split in the side,12 foot long,20 inches,would probably bring $2000-$2500 a thousand.Ash right now is going for upwards of $1500 for nice stuff.

Where I live a 9 foot red Oak 28 inch on little end took to the mile any mill will bring you from $17.00 to $28.00. That same log chunked and split will bring you 5 times that. We can take all our 23 inch and under to the chipper get $27.00 a ton. That is the reason so many lumber logs are going to firewood. I saw a mill offer a fellow $50.00 for three vermeer logs about 30 inchs across over 12 ft long. Farmers did pay $8.00 a acre for forest land now the pay $8.00 for farm land and $75.00 a acre for timber land. Farmers are letting the mills come in and strip the forest for free bull dozing the stumps in a pile and burn them. That's the great state of Illinois.

 

[Whitespider]

It's the same way 'round here CR.
A saw log will cost you more to load and haul it to the mill than they'll give you for it.
I called the saw mill across the river last year and asked what they'd pay for 3 oak logs, 12 ft long, 36 inch diameter if I hauled it to them... they offered me $25.oo per log if it was top-grade, otherwise more like $10.oo or $12.oo.
Taking a saw log out of the tree is silly, it's worth much more to me in heating value.

I don't know what planet 4b316 is livin' on... but it ain't the same one that I am.

 

[4b316]

logs

Here is a price sheet from ny DEC.This is a little lower than what they will pay in the yard.Just hate to see logs go for firewood but to each his own http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/spr2012winter.pdf

 

[Chris-PA]

The economics of trying to move a couple of logs don't make sense. I can't move the logs, and often they're not accessible, so you'd have to get someone out with some equipment, pay for the fuel - it's just not going to make sense for a couple of logs. It needs to be scaled up for it to work.

 

[Whitespider]

… Ash right now is going for upwards of $1500 for nice stuff.

Where do you get the $1500?? I checked your price sheet and the highest I see paid for White Ash is $800.oo per thousand (and that was from a questionable survey). That was the highest! Looking at average prices, and averaging all four areas, makes a 12 foot long, 20 inch DBH ash log worth around $18.oo on average… hardly worth the time, expense and labor to haul it to the mill.

With LP running around $4.oo in your area, and figuring the amount of LP that firewood will displace, you couldn't justify taking it to the mill if they paid 5 times that amount.

 

[4b316]

prices

As the price rundown sheet shows,all prices were a average for the last 6 months.I understand now that you only have a few trees so it would not be worth your while to cut.Sorry,I was just trying to help doing the best by your timber

 

[Whitespider]

…all prices were a average for the last 6 months.

No… that is incorrect… quote from your price sheet…

• Low Price Range -reported range of the absolute lowest price paid by survey respondents over the last six months.
• Average Price Range - reported range of the average price paid for “middle quality” timber by survey respondents over the last six months.
• High Price Range - reported range of the absolute highest price paid by survey respondents over the last six months.

The absolute highest price paid for ash was $800.oo per thousand board feet using the International Rule, and only in the Adirondack.

 

[CRThomas]

Lumber

As the price rundown sheet shows,all prices were a average for the last 6 months.I understand now that you only have a few trees so it would not be worth your while to cut.Sorry,I was just trying to help doing the best by your timber[/Lumber talk to mills and they said why pay for logs when we get Vermeer logs free. One mill owner said he had 500 acres of Ash to cut soon as he can get to it. Our mills are old style and they quit when logs get below 23 inch they go to chip mile we have a lot of island in my area they look like a tornado went threw. South of me they took all the prime logs push the rest up in a pile and burnt it.

 

[Lookin4lunkers]

Same thing going on here. Trees are garbage and corn might as well be solid gold. Wood lots are disappearing daily and the waste is mind boggling.

 

[CRThomas]

Trees

As the price rundown sheet shows,all prices were a average for the last 6 months.I understand now that you only have a few trees so it would not be worth your while to cut.Sorry,I was just trying to help doing the best by your timber

Right now you can get a tractor and trailer around 25 ton of hard wood logs under 23 inch for $275.00 a check $250.00 cash. Delivered and stack in a nice pile.