Ash for haft material?

[moose11872]

Has anyone ever used it for a haft?

 

[Steve Tall]

A related thread:

www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1110469-Ash-for-Hafts

 

[LEGION 12]

A ash haft.

 

[300Six]

Perfectly good material and will become exceeding rare or extinct soon (Emerald Ash Borer is wiping them out) but as firewood rounds is one of the very easiest hardwoods to split. The extreme at the other end of the fence is American Elm and Ironwood. It is the ease that Ash splits that makes me wary of using it for long handles that are subject to shock. You'll want to make sure the grain is perfect and that there is no runout.

 

[wdmn]

Though it cannot compete with hickory in terms of durability, strength and shock resistance, one benefit to ash is that it is - I think at least - easier to work with than hickory. Whereas hickory is known to "tearout" easily, ash does not. One other downside to ash (as 300Six mentioned) is it's hard to justify harvesting the rare healthy Fraxinus spp. since EAB is decimating most of the genus.

 

[300Six]

Though it cannot compete with hickory in terms of durability, strength and shock resistance, one benefit to ash is that it is - I think at least - easier to work with than hickory. Whereas hickory is known to "tearout" easily, ash does not. One other downside to ash (as 300Six mentioned) is it's hard to justify harvesting the rare healthy Fraxinus spp. since EAB is decimating most of the genus.

In fact there is no need to harvest White, Green nor Black Ash anymore since there are billions of board feet of recently-deceased Ash trees already standing about everywhere. In eastern Ontario 25% of the forest cover (until 5 years ago) was Ash. So far no one has found native ash trees that are resistant to EAB either. I played around with Black Ash this summer; a smallish swamp tree that is renowned for it's use by Natives for making strong woven baskets and packs. The wood readily separates at the circular growth rings (by pounding on the butt ends with a mallet) to yield consistent thin strips of material that are easily cut, woven or shaped while green and then take that on that form as they dry out. Black Ash should not be used to make handles!

 

[wdmn]

Some cities have taken to injecting the ash in the hopes of protecting them from EAB. Nevertheless, many magnificent specimens are fading quickly.

I've heard about black ash being used like that, but never had the opportunity to give it a try. Sounds like fun.

As far as using recently dead ash, I would have thought that the wood would be compromised by the sickness?

edit: know it's been said before, but they do still use ash for baseball bats: http://slugger.com/baseball/wood-bats/mlb-grade/prime-ash/

 

[rjdankert]

. . . .

As far as using recently dead ash, I would have thought that the wood would be compromised by the sickness?

. . . .

The EAB don't make the tree sick. They eat under the bark and kill the tree. To use the wood the recommendation is to take off the bark and then then some more of the wood. I'm thinking 1/2 inch, but the information is easily found on the net. I did the research awhile ago when a relative lost 80 white ash trees. He was cutting them for firewood. I got some pieces from him for making handles. Haven't made any yet so no experience to report.

 

[300Six]

Some cities have taken to injecting the ash in the hopes of protecting them from EAB. Nevertheless, many magnificent specimens are fading quickly.
I've heard about black ash being used like that, but never had the opportunity to give it a try. Sounds like fun.
As far as using recently dead ash, I would have thought that the wood would be compromised by the sickness?
edit: know it's been said before, but they do still use ash for baseball bats: http://slugger.com/baseball/wood-bats/mlb-grade/prime-ash/

I became an Ontario-licensed pesticide operator and applicator 3 years ago in hopes of trying to save as many magnificent Ash trees as possible. The insecticide trunk injection routine I use works like a charm. Protects the tree for up to 2 years. Pesticide regulation and legislation in Canada is so restrictive and prohibitive (and onerous to obtain) including cost that I just had to jump into the fray to see if something could be done more economically for the average stiff that isn't overly endowed with extra cash to save the lovely tree(s) in their yard. The EAB larvae kill the tree by zig-zag eating up the cambium layer, and the sap and heart wood remains perfect. As long as the tree is processed soon after the leaves die-off the wood remains perfect. I love Ash trees but they don't have physical characteristics that lend themselves to top notch baseball bats nor other primary striking tools. Wonderful wheelbarrow, shovel and rake handles though! And anybody in the east that makes canoes insists on Ash thwarts, gunwales and trim. Same goes for traditional snowshoes and laCrosse sticks.

 

[Square_peg]

We wiped out the American Chestnut tree by doing salvage logging and decimating the few resistant trees. I hope we learned something from that.

http://www.acf.org/mission_history.php

 

[idaho_crosscut]

We wiped out the American Chestnut tree by doing salvage logging and decimating the few resistant trees. I hope we learned something from that.

http://www.acf.org/mission_history.php

A buddy of mine found an american chestnut tree on the breaks of the salmon river several weeks ago. are they really all wiped out?

Also, I have used ash in handles before, and they turn out great. the wood does not split out like you would think.

as long as we are talking about woods for handles, let me caution you against black locust-- it is hard as a rock, (and dense as one too!) which has some novelty to it, but it shrinks and swells too much to keep wedges/the head on! maybe if you used a tension pin drilled thru the head like on competition axes....

 

[Square_peg]

A buddy of mine found an american chestnut tree on the breaks of the salmon river several weeks ago. are they really all wiped out?

They've been gone for a hundred years - chestnut blight - came from Japan. There are a few islolated trees here and there on the west coast. Plus a few resistant trees living on the east coast. There's a breeding program using resistant stock to try to reintroduce the American Chestnut to eastern forests.

Are you sure your buddy didn't find a horse chestnut? Would he know the difference? They are a common invasive tree on the west coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

White Ash makes a fine scythe snath--no reason it won't work well as an axe handle. As long as the grain isn't severely flawed you can even use maple, beech, or birch without incident. We've become fairly spoiled as consumers and insist on the highest quality handles when often we don't need anywhere close to that.

 

[300Six]

We wiped out the American Chestnut tree by doing salvage logging and decimating the few resistant trees. I hope we learned something from that.

http://www.acf.org/mission_history.php

I was led to believe salvage logging only involved dead and dying trees. Butternut blight (another introduced disease) is fast rendering native relatives of Black Walnut towards extinction in eastern North America now. American Chestnut has not disappeared but Chestnut blight continues to knock back whatever suckers/saplings emerge from the old stumps as soon as they grow to about 10 feet. Consequently seed production does not and has not happened for the past 100 years.
Ash tree progress is going to be an interesting business. They are (or soon to be using the word 'were') very common in the east and yet so far there don't seem to be any EAB-resistant trees on record in areas such as s. Ontario and Michigan that have been devastated.

 

[LEGION 12]

The Emerald Ash Beetle is doing a real number on the trees here gonna be a lot of haft and firewood material soon.

 

[300Six]

The Emerald Ash Beetle is doing a real number on the trees here gonna be a lot of haft and firewood material soon.

Crying shame up here that gov't won't allow anyone to do much with these upcoming millions of dead ash trees. They use taxpayer money to tell us that wood stoves in urban areas have become illegal (create air pollutants and produce toxic waste, don't you know!) and won't allow transport of logs to convenient sawmills due to transport quarantine boundaries. These trees are getting chipped up (at tax-payer expense) by the boat load and turned into "Green" compost. I redid my living room and dining room hardwood floors a few years ago with reclaimed select-grade White Ash (processed by Bruce Flooring at a Pennsylvania mill) and it looks pretty darn good! Lighter in colour, weighs less and is softer than traditional Red Oak but lovely-looking stuff nevertheless and sure beats the 'excrement' out of phony-looking wood-print laminates.

 

[wdmn]

Interesting posts.

I saw my first american chestnut today actually; at a nursery/ecology centre in the very south of Ontario... it must have been grown from resistant stock; I know that the species is still at risk of being extirpated from the province. Unfortunately I didn't get an opportunity to ask about it, but have sent an email to the production manager with some questions.

Similar situation is starting to develop with American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and beech bark disease. I know at least one large land owner with a saw mill who is already taking out all the beech (he is one of the few who has a market for it) in his forest. It's not a decision he's made lightly, but scientists are predicting the decimation of this species over the next ten years... bad news for the forest community, many of whom depend on beech nuts to make it through the winter.

300Six, have you found any interest at the municipal level in Ottawa or area for your cheaper inoculation?

wdmn

 

[BG_Farmer]

Honestly I would take a great number of woods over most of the hickory I've seen used in handles lately. One thing that I think makes any wood into a better handle is to use either a round section (small trunk or limb) or to split it out of a large piece rather than using a sawed piece--even a little runout weakens wood a lot! I have a short handle on my little six pound sledge (I use it often to drive spiral nails through tough rails and posts); that handle was made almost 10 years ago out of bush honeysuckle trunk, which I've never heard recommended for such but was available in the closest pile when I needed a handle!

 

[idaho_crosscut]

Are you sure your buddy didn't find a horse chestnut? Would he know the difference? They are a common invasive tree on the west coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight

well, he very well could have been mistaken, but i tend to take his word on matters related to trees. a recent forestry graduate, but one who learned 100x more about the forest in the field than via his courses at uni by actually working and living in the (eastern) woods since a very young age.

maybe it's that i WANT to believe

 

[300Six]

300Six, have you found any interest at the municipal level in Ottawa or area for your cheaper inoculation?
wdmn

A gov't of Canada (Cdn Forestry Service) agency holds the patent on the only tree-injection pesticide (TreeAzin) that was allowed for the past 10 years. Costs a fortune for any other competitor to get a pesticide gov't-approved but Bayer Chemical managed to do so 2 years ago. Their stuff (Confidor 200SL) is 1/2 the cost (per dose) and the ease of injection and cost of equipment of about 1/10. Few private folks are willing to spring $20 per inch of trunk diameter at breast height (DBH) to keep their trees alive especially now that Bioforest Products (makers of gov't of Canada patented TreeAzin) is recommending trees be treated every year instead of every second year like they did in the past. One stately White Ash tree growing nearby me is 48 inches across! I can protect it for $305 VS the TreeAzin $960 version! City of Ottawa has shown no interest in efficiency or economy and continues to pour $millions into treating public space trees with the expensive stuff. But word of mouth is definitely keeping me busy during the summer.