how is ash?

[cycledude232]

been keeping my parents 200 year old farm house, up in the mid 70's on some very green ash, its been doing a fine job, actually at the moment, im burning some ash that was standing 3 days ago, lights up instantly and burns nice and hot, good bed of coals as well.:greenchainsaw:

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Yes, it is confusing because we use oak and ash both as a global terms. Live oak is incredibly dense. Also, oak heartwood in general is much denser than the sapwood. The same is true of ash heartwood, which is very dense, whereas the sapwood is at most 80% as dense. On the other hand, hickory sapwood and heartwood are about the same in both density and hardness.

So, we have to work with averages. Live oak still amazes me. I'm not sure if a live oak round, if cut green, even floats. The same is true of ash. You can take a strip of ash and drop it in a bucket. The next day it will have sunk to the bottom because it can collect so much water. So, if you cut a green ash tree in a wet season, its density can be huge.

I'm not confused about the difference between Ash and Oak. The density of wood is measured as oven dried not fresh cut or water logged. Otherwise you will be measuring the density of the wood and the moisture it contains.

Fresh cut Oak is heavier by far than Ash. The specific density of wood is directly related to the caloric content of (oven) dry wood. A cord of Green Ash is measured at 20 million BTUs per cord, Red Oak is rated at 24.6 MMBTU's per cord and White Oak at 29.1 MMBTU's per cord.

I still say the example you provided ( Fraxinus velutina, Arizona Ash ) is an exception rather than the norm for Ash.

By your line of reasoning fresh cut Cottonwood or Catalpa ranks with Oak. :crazy1:


*Weights and BTUs for cord wood courtesy of the University of Nebraska - http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf