Similar to oak but cheaperAsh is a 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 chest of drawers, but has not traditionally been widely used for furniture making. Oak is more widely known and furniture made from this timber attracts higher prices in general. To the uninformed, ash is thought of as being somehow inferior but this is not the case: both woods have excellent albeit slightly different qualities.
One of the most prominent qualities of ash timber is that it is shock resistant. It can withstand movement or vibration without splitting or cracking as easily as some other timbers (willow, for example, is notorious for splitting). This quality of ash timber was traditionally reserved for making wheel spokes for wagons and handles for tools such as hammers and axes. Ash was also popular as a source of fuel as it can be burnt ‘green’ without seasoning or drying.
The development of mechanised transport saw ash being used to make the coachwork for railway carriages, lorry cabs and car bodies. Perhaps 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 chests of drawers?
When is an ash chest of drawers not an ash chest of drawers?Oak furniture has enjoyed a renewed popularity during recent years and this has been due partly to a move away from dark oak colours to the more natural, lighter-coloured, finishes and partly due to new supplies of oak timber being sourced from North America, China and the Far East. These supplies are not infinite, 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 has been 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 described as ash, including all our ash chests of drawers. Some may think that any other course of action is done to deliberately mislead customers but, in fairness, this is not always the case. The risk of an innocent mistake arising is not insignificant as can be illustrated by considering the mountain ash or rowan tree.
The leaf pattern of the mountain ash is, at least superficially, 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 more closely related to apple and hawthorn. It is perhaps easier to see then how, in the UK at least, confusion could arise between ash and mountain ash. When it comes to an ash chest of drawers, it is more likely to be (incorrectly) described as oak than it is as rowan or mountain ash…!!
The differences between Ash and Oak The grain of both oak and ash can look very similar and so may often be confused. But oak wood has a radial grain as well as a regular grain, so when you look at the end of an ash timber board there is only one visible grain pattern. When oak is sawn so that the radial grain is flat on the surface of the board there is a grain pattern that some people can see as "tiger oak" this is a kind of ripple effect.
In the past, makers
oak tables often used pieces of wood sawn in this manner for the table tops.