I never see ash around here but I am going to try to find some. Curious, those of you who have ash, do you know what species it is? I see mentions of there being two common ones, white ash and green ash. Something in the back of my mind that we used to farm a tract that had green ash on it. Which one is good, or both? Also, I was talking to a logger guy yesterday at lunch and asked him about what hardwoods mills would take. He said he has not been in that part of the industry in a long time but he mentioned cottonwood, ash and blackjack being reject wood, they don't want it. I guess cottonwood is low BTU? Blackjack, I assume is blackjack oak, which grows kind of gnarly and not straight. As for ash, I wonder why they would reject it?
Ash is easy to identify by looking at the twig sprouting pattern. Ash has opposite or symmetrical twig buds/sprouting. Each twig has an opposite twig on the other side of the branch. Both green and white ash bark have a crisscross ridge style bark with white ash bark ridges deeper than the more shallow green ash bark. Green ash can be found in bottom lands while white ash prefers drier sites but both can be found in the same area. Emerald ash borer could be one reason for a mill to refuse ash. As a firewood, white ash is good at many things (starting, splitting, drying...) but great at only one, low moisture and quick drying. Green ash has a lot more moisture than white ash and takes an average time to dry. Many folks favor good coals and many wood species coal better than ash like oak, locust, hickory... Some reports have ash wood prices very low now because of cutting and harvesting ahead of emerald ash borer. Ash could excel in some wood stoves because it has a steady burn rate or heat output making stove draft control easier. This would depend on the stove and how the ash was c/s/s. The large blower on my furnace produces the most heat with dry sugar maple in the morning and ash is better at maintaining the house temperature in the afternoon. My opinion is ash's historical high rating is based on quick easy drying and a steady burn rate from a wood with good weight.
We have white ash here and it is great firewood. Yes, it splits easy and dries quickly. It does leave coals but not as much as oak and that is the reason oak is favored. But many wood burners still prefer ash and if that was all I had to burn, I'd be happy.
Most of the ash ive scrounged is the white ash variety. Green ash can be tougher to hand split IME. Both are the same as far as burning qualities.
The traditional Christmas yule fireplace log was ash. Total heresy considering c/s/s practices. 100 or more years ago, ash would be the top-of-the-line yule log considering the low moisture content. Just think how the Christmas eve story would change if they had access to dutch-elm-kill slippery elm seasoned standing and bark free for the yule log.
