How to Identify White Ash Wood (Fraxinus americana)

White Ash, Fraxinus americana: color, grain, end grain, Janka hardness (1,320 lbf) and weight, and how to tell it from Hickory (Shagbark), quoted from the USDA Wood Handbook and The Wood Database.

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At a glance

Scientific name: Fraxinus americana
Type: Hardwood
Origin: Eastern North America
Color: Heartwood is a light to medium brown; sapwood can be very wide and tends toward beige or light brown.
Grain and texture: Medium to coarse texture similar to oak; grain almost always straight and regular, though moderately curly or figured boards occur.
End grain: Ring porous; large earlywood pores 2-4 rows wide, small latewood pores solitary and in radial multiples; tyloses common; parenchyma banded (marginal) and vasicentric/winged/confluent around latewood pores; narrow rays, normal spacing.
Janka hardness: 1,320 lbf
Specific gravity (12% MC): 0.6
Other clue: Can have a distinct, moderately unpleasant smell when being worked; noted for excellent shock resistance relative to its weight, which is why it is favored for tool handles.

What White Ash looks like

Heartwood is a light to medium brown; sapwood can be very wide and tends toward beige or light brown. Medium to coarse texture similar to oak; grain almost always straight and regular, though moderately curly or figured boards occur. End grain: Ring porous; large earlywood pores 2-4 rows wide, small latewood pores solitary and in radial multiples; tyloses common; parenchyma banded (marginal) and vasicentric/winged/confluent around latewood pores; narrow rays, normal spacing.

Hardness and weight

Janka hardness 1,320 lbf (side hardness: the force needed to embed a 0.444-inch steel ball to half its diameter). Specific gravity 0.6 at 12% moisture content, so a cubic foot weighs roughly 37 lb. Weight in the hand is one of the quickest checks: compare a piece of known size against a board you already know.

White Ash vs Hickory (Shagbark)

Both are ring-porous, pale-to-medium-brown, tough woods used for tool handles; ash has narrow, evenly spaced rays and a moderately unpleasant working odor, while hickory is denser/harder (Janka roughly 1,820-1,880 lbf vs ash's 1,320 lbf) with reticulate parenchyma bands visible on the endgrain. The Hickory (Shagbark) page has its own details.

Smell, weight and other clues

Can have a distinct, moderately unpleasant smell when being worked; noted for excellent shock resistance relative to its weight, which is why it is favored for tool handles.

Where you will meet it

Flooring, millwork, boxes/crates, baseball bats, and other turned objects such as tool handles.

Working it

Produces good results with hand or machine tools, responds well to steam bending, and glues/stains/finishes well; ash (Fraxinus) has been reported to cause skin irritation and a decrease in lung function.

How to photograph it for identification

Photograph a freshly cut or sanded face in daylight, not a finished or stained surface, since stain hides color and finish flattens grain. Add a close-up of the end grain: cut a clean end, wet it or sand it to 220, and shoot from straight on; pore pattern and rays are the most reliable marks. Put a ruler in frame. The app suggests the likely species; confirm with the end grain and weight.

FAQ

How hard is White Ash?

Janka hardness 1,320 lbf. For comparison, Red Oak is about 1,290 lbf and Eastern White Pine about 380 lbf.

How do I tell White Ash from Hickory (Shagbark)?

Is White Ash a hardwood or a softwood?

White Ash is a hardwood: it comes from a broadleaf tree. Hardwood and softwood describe the kind of tree, not how hard the wood is; some hardwoods are softer than some softwoods.

What color is White Ash?

Heartwood is a light to medium brown; sapwood can be very wide and tends toward beige or light brown.

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