Ash, the special purpose timber
It is a curious thing, but ash has not traditionally been used as a cabinet making timber. There are good reasons for this, but it would be a mistake to suppose that ash was not used because it wasn’t suitable. Ash is actually very good for furniture making and it is satisfying to see it now being used in this selection of contemporary styled ash bookcases.
In Britain the number one timber choice for furniture making has always been oak. This goes back to the earliest known examples of British furniture. The reasons for this were simple: oak was in plentiful supply throughout most parts of the UK; it was tough, durable and has an attractive grain. Ash on the other hand, was also plentiful in many areas; it too has an attractive grain (albeit slightly less so than oak) and it is tough and durable.
The reason ash did not achieve the same prominence for furniture building as oak is that it has another quality. Ash is very resistant to vibration and shock loading. This made it an ideal choice for making handles for tools such as hammers and axes and for making the spokes for cart wheels. In perhaps a classic piece of typecasting, oak became the universal construction material while ash, by tradition, was reserved for its specialist purposes. When printing was developed in Europe it was oak, rather than ash bookcases that were made to hold the new printed books.
Timber for trains, trucks and prestige cars
In more recent years the development of first the railways and then lorries and motor cars gave ash a new commercial importance. It had always been used by the builders of horse drawn vehicles because of its shockproof properties and then it was adopted by the builders of railway carriages and for making the framework of lorry cabs and car bodies. Perhaps one of the last major motor manufacturers to use ash in Britain was the Morris Motor Company for the ash frames of its Morris ‘Minor’ Traveller and Morris ‘Mini’ Countryman cars. Today there is still one British car maker, Morgan, that still uses ash to make the bodywork frames of its prestige sports cars.
But what of ash furniture and the evolution of the ash bookcase? In the post-war era, Britain’s oak woodlands had been severely depleted and furniture made of pine was proving (and is still) hugely popular. Then, around the time of the 1980s, oak furniture once again reappeared in Britain. Most, it is true, is made not with British oak but using oak sourced from North America, China and the Far East. People whose only experience of oak furniture had been the rather dark and gloomy examples from the inter-war and Victorian years, now discovered how attractive this light-coloured wood can be when not hidden under dirt, soot or excessively dark staining.
The evolution of the ash bookcase
It became fashionable again to have oak furniture and to appreciate the qualities of hardwood furniture in general. But even the new supplies of oak are not infinite, so alternative hardwood timbers were now considered, one of which was ash. Consequently, with no tradition of ash furniture, most ash bookcases are of a contemporary style.
Because of the similarities in appearance, some furniture supplied from China was being 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 always try to ensure all furniture of the genus Fraxinus is described as ash, including all our ash bookcases. It might be thought that to do anything else could be construed as a deliberate act intended to mislead but, in fairness, this is not always the case. The chances of an innocent mistake occurring are not insignificant as can be illustrated by considering the mountain ash or rowan tree.
Mountain ash and ash have, at least superficially, very similar leaves. They are both called ash and so logic dictates they are both of the same species. However, mountain ash is actually from the Sorbus family and so is more closely related to apple and hawthorn. It is easy to see how then, in Britain at least, confusion could arise between ash and mountain ash. When it comes to an ash coffee table, it is more likely to be (incorrectly) described as oak than it is as rowan or mountain ash…!!