Use of Wormy Ash

8/3/20, 3:35 PM #1

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Use of Wormy Ash

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

All the ash in the US is dead or about to be dead from the emerald ash borer. The dead ash quickly infest with worms of one kind or another. I reported earlier that I sawed a wormy dead ash from our farm and fumigated it to kill insects, successfully.

When it came time to build this desk for our kitchen I wanted to incorporate ash from our farm. Nostalgia was going to trump design for this desk. The panel on the side is crotch veneer that was not wormy.

The top is from a large wormy log I sawed. My purpose is to show what wormy ash could look like. I'm not smitten with it and would not have used it without the farm connection and a reminder of a species I once was fond of.

Re: Use of Wormy Ash

8/3/20, 3:58 PM #2

Kneale Brownson
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Re: Use of Wormy Ash

kneale brownson

My parents had a nicely-finished serving tray made from some sort of wormy hardwood. Have no clue where that is now, but it was attractive.

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Use of Wormy Ash

8/3/20, 7:38 PM #3

Yonak
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Bill, as ash is becoming more rare ...

Yonak

Are the prices of ash lumber going up ?

Re: Use of Wormy Ash

8/3/20, 7:43 PM #4

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Re: Bill, as ash is becoming more rare ...

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Are the prices of ash lumber going up ?

I don't know. When the consequences of the ash borer became apparent everyone with a stand of ash tried to get it harvested. Europe became alarmed and restricted import. Prices plummeted. I don't know where it is at now. It has been removed from the log market reports so it is essentially extinct as a lumber species. But there may be huge inventory of processed lumber to work off, I don't know.

Use of Wormy Ash

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