European Ash

European Ash

Durability:

The timber is non-durable and perishable. It is susceptible to insect attack by both powder post and common furniture beetle. The heartwood is moderately resistant to preservative treatment but back heartwood is resistant.

Mechanical Properties:

This tough, heavy, dense timber is fairly split resistant and has excellent steam bending properties, and with low stiffness and medium resistance to crushing and shock loads.

Seasoning:

European Ash dries fairly rapidly and needs care to avoid surface checking and splitting, but this responds well to reconditioning kiln treatment; medium movement in service.

Uses:

  • The unique qualities of European Ash timber mean it is regarded as one of the best woods for canoe building, boat building and for various other marine uses
  • In fact, European Ash wood is also used for oars, tillers, deck beams and frames, as well as cabinetmaking and furniture, chair making, agricultural implements, vehicle bodies, wheelwrighting, bentwork, fancy turnery and laminated articles
  • Other uses include corestock and plywood manufacture, and decorative veneers for furniture, paneling and marquetry
  • European ash also takes treatment as hardwood (silver grey) and in veneer form, the olive ash figure is highly decorative, especially in stumpwood and burr form
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Description

The heartwood of European Ash is typically cream to pale tan coloured. In some logs, a dark brown to black heartwood is found which is strong and sound and sold as olive ash timber. The wood is tough, flexible and straight grained. The texture is coarse but even. The weight varies between 510-830 kg/m³ (32-51 lb/ft³), average 710 kg/m³ (44 lb/ft³); specific gravity .71.

We have sawn ash timber to suit all requirements. To enquire or for more information, please call 01455 209121.

Additional information

Latin Name

Fraxinus excelsior

Family Name

Oleaceae

Distribution

Grows throughout Europe, North Africa and Western Asia

Also know as

English, French, Polish, Slavonian, etc according to origin.

Timber you may like

  • Steamed Beech

    European Beech's heartwood is very pale pink-brown. It is common practice on the continent to steam the timber which turns it to a reddish-brown tone. Some logs have a dark red kern or darker veining. Beech has a straight grain and fine, even texture. Average weight 720 kg/m³ (45 lb/ft³); specific gravity .72.

  • European Sycamore

    European Sycamore is a temperate hardwood that is creamy in colour. With sycamore wood there is no colour difference between the sapwood and it’s heartwood. Sycamore timber is white, or yellowish-white when freshly cut, with a natural lustre especially noticeable on quarter-sawn surfaces. Sycamore is generally straight grained but may be curvy or wavy grained, and the texture is fine. The average weight is 630 kg/m³ when dried. It is also one of the hardest and strongest pines in existence making it resistant to wear and decay.

  • European Oak

    European Oak's heartwood is light tan to biscuit coloured, usually straight-grained, but irregular or cross-grained material can occur depending on growth conditions. Characteristic silver grain figure on quartered surfaces due to broad rays. British and Baltic oaks are tough and hard, weighing 720 kg/m³ (45 lb/ft³), but the Volhynian oak of south east Poland, and even milder oak from Yugoslavia known as Slavonian oak weights 670 kg/m³ (42 lb/ft³); specific gravity from .67 to .72 according to type.

  • Sweet Chestnut

    Sweet Chestnut's sapwood is narrow, distinct from the heartwood which is yellowish-brown in colour, closely resembling oak in appearance, but lacking the silver-grain figure characteristic of that timber, resulting from the finer rays. European Sweet Chestnut is a stable, straight grained and hard-wearing timber species (when the sapwood is excluded).The grain may be straight, but is more commonly spiral, particularly in timber from old trees, while logs are liable to cup and ring-shake. It weighs about 560 kg/m³ when dried. On account of its somewhat acidic character chestnut tends to accelerate the corrosion of metals, particularly when moist. It also contains tannin, as a result of which blue-black discolourations are prone to appear on the wood when it comes into contact with iron or iron compounds.