Cheaper than oak but just as goodAsh is a useful hardwood timber that often bears a close resemblance to oak, depending on how it is cut and finished. It has an attractive appearance in its own right, especially for cabinet furniture such as an ash blanket box, but has never been widely used for furniture making. Oak is more widely known and as a result furniture made from this timber attracts higher prices in general. Many people might reasonably conclude that ash is somehow inferior but this is not the case: both woods have excellent, albeit slightly different, qualities. See our range of
oak beds.
Ash has many fine qualities but one of the most prominent is that it is shock resistant. It can withstand movement and vibration far better than many other timbers (willow, for example, is notorious for splitting). This property of ash meant that it was traditionally reserved for making wheel spokes for wagons and handles for tools such as hammers and axes.
When mechanised transport was developed, it was ash that was chosen to make the coachwork for railway carriages, lorry cabs and car bodies. It is a testament to its qualities that the British car manufacturer Morgan still uses ash frames to make the bodywork for its range of classic sports cars. So how did such a useful timber end up being used for the making of furniture – particularly ash blanket boxes?
When is an ash blanket box not an ash blanket box?To understand the rise in popularity of ash furniture it is first important to realise that in recent years oak furniture has also enjoyed a significant renewal in popularity. For many years oak was associated with heavy, dark furniture often in a Gothic Revival style. The introduction of oak furniture in contemporary styles and completed in lighter, more natural finishes was more appealing to modern tastes and the use of cheaper oak supplies from North America and Asia made it more affordable.
These supplies of oak are not limitless, so alternative hardwood timbers have been considered, one of which is ash. In fact, because of the similarities in appearance, some furniture supplied from China was sold labelled as oak because this is its local name, even though it is actually from the
Fraxinus or ash family of trees.
At Right Price Furniture, we try to ensure that all furniture of the genus
Fraxinus is clearly described as ash, including all our ash blanket boxes. Some may think that to do anything else would be a deliberate intention to mislead but, in fairness, this is not always the case. The risk of an innocent mistake occurring is not insignificant, as can be illustrated by considering the mountain ash or rowan tree.
The leaf pattern of the mountain ash is, to the untrained eye, very similar to that of the ash tree. Both trees are called ash, so logic suggests they are both of the same species. BUT… mountain ash is actually from the
Sorbus family and is actually more closely related to apple and hawthorn. If it is easy to see how confusion could arise between ash and mountain ash then, when it comes to an ash blanket box, retailers could be forgiven for mistakenly calling it oak…
Differences between Ash and Oak
The grain of both timbers can look very similar and so may often be confused. But oak has something called medullary rays that are like veins in the wood radiating outwards from the heart of the trunk. When the timber is converted (sawn into planks) these rays shown up as silvery flecks in the timber. This figuring is distinctive and a useful indicator of the difference between the two woods.