Thread: Claret Ash? - Worth milling?

Richard Raffan's (one of the current world's woodturning gurus) favourite woods are: Manchurian Pear and Claret Ash.

Mind you Claret Ash is a name that I've heard apply to quite a few types of Fraxinus.

As a rule, Claret Ash is easy to work and takes a finish very, very nicely but most pieces I've seen are a bit on the bland side.

IMHO it's way under-utilised for furniture making but a bad choice for external pieces.

Woodwould did a project with it. Where is it...........

Here 'tis! Go get a drink and have a read!

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f187/m...abinet-113031/

I had a slab of the wood as well, but Woodwould needed it to finish the last bit.

So yes! Claret Ash is Good.

Hi Red Shirt Guy,
It is a great timber, Turns beautifully, Finishes very well.
Is Whitish in main colour, with a light brown grain.
Can you remember the leaves. They should have been a Maroon-Red Colour.
5 to 6inch / 125 - 150mm. slabs for Turning, would be good for you.

My, my. Isn't that Woodwould a clever wee chappie [raging jealousy emoticon]

Responses so far are encouraging. Thanks folks.

Issatree: Yep. That's about right on the leaves.

I've had a little extra look around and noted that it's apparently a good wood for solid guitar bodies too. So it's sounding like it's worth the milling time afterall. In fact, me thinks there's not going to be much of the tree that I'm *not* going to use.

Depending on how energetic I'm feeling and what the time is like, I'll probably end up freehanding some 2-3", ~9' slabs (to account for massive errors and smoothing) from the trunk to resaw later, a few discs from the trunk as suggested, and a bunch more from the branches. Good thing I bought a couple of extra chains this morning

It's form and sprouting branches look exactly like the Claret Ash in my front yard.

So, your old man is on the money IMHO

Originally Posted by Tankstand

So, your old man is on the money IMHO

Shh. Don't tell him that. I'll never hear the end of it

If you plank it and then get sick of looking at it, I'd be happy to take it off your hands and make another piece of furniture with it.

TL, I still have a bowl-sized piece of your slab left over as promised.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

TL, I still have a bowl-sized piece of your slab left over as promised.

Oh wonderful! Must come over for a visit and pick it up!

Well here's the result of annoying the neighbours for half the day.

Four rough as guts and meaty slabs, 43 turning logs of various sizes, 1 piece possibly for a plate size turning, and one big bugger of a log that should probably be cut in two.

In the pics of the slabs and big log you can see bits of darker color which I guess is rot. It's still quite solid though, so I was wondering...are those bits still good for anything or I should cut around them?

A few of the smaller logs probably need their ends cleaned up as they were cut from two sides and in typical fashion I've left some tails behind which won't help with drying evenly.

I've painted the ends until I can give them some more attention in a few weeks but would like to know if I should de-bark the logs and if so, any tips on how? (He asks without looking it up himself yet.)

Saw a tip the other day from the Woodsmith Mag.site that said if you are not worried about milling to exact size(as mentioned earlier) to finish later on is when you have the tree trimmed back of all branches and the truck still standing say 2 metres high cut it into planks with your chainsaw,so in effect you have several planks standing upright,then cut them off a ground level.
Has anyone seen or heard of this,seems a safe way to mill some planks?

The dark areas are likely fungal attack and are just discolouration, not rot.

@Nrb: I'd thought about doing something like that but didn't in this case for a couple of reasons:
- I figure it's more dangerous to cut a top off than it is to fell from ground level (without experience and proper climbing gear)
- And the trunk ended up being shorter than I originally guessed and was only 3 or 4 times the length of my bar which meant I could just cut down the ends (nice and easy on the chain) and hack away at the inbetween bit (hence the major slop I got.)

Straight cutting across the end of a log is, for me anyway, always harder, much slower and murder on the chains.


@WW - Excellent news. I thought it would make for nice feature marks in pieces.