Mark Peet loaned me so many different oddly grained white ash pieces that the regular white ash page was getting clogged up with them so I have moved them all to this page. Additionally, I have moved some more standard types such as "crotch" to this page. SO ... what's here is:
my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions
angel step
angel step is just compression wood, usually from a stump. It is frequently found in walnut, less often in maple, and infrequently in ash. The compression takes the form of short curls that often form a staircase pattern. The ash pieces on this page do not have the really heavy angel step figure found in, for example, walnut stumps.
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I don't know if this is a crotch area or possibly a stump area, but in any case there are clearly areas of angel step compression wood, particularly in the second face, and they can be seen more clearly in the enlargements.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I don't know if this is a crotch area or possibly a stump area, but in any case there are clearly areas of angel step compression wood in both faces and they can be seen more clearly in the enlargements.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I don't know if this is a crotch area or possbily a stump area, but in any case there are clearly areas of angel step compression wood, particularly in the second face, and they can be seen more clearly in the enlargements. This particular pieces is also what Mark calls, reasonably I believe, "olive grained" American white ash.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of angel step American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
blistered
Blistered is a form of figure often found in some wood (e.g. sapele) but not something Mark or I had previously encountered in white ash.
both sides of a sample plank of blistered American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The blistering is hard to see in the pic but although faint, it IS present in the piece.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of blistered American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. David got this from Mark. The blistering is hard to see in the pic but although faint, it IS present in the piece.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of blistered American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The blistering is hard to see in the pic but although faint, it IS present in the piece. Also, it looks a bit like angel step but isn't.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of blistered American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The blistering is hard to see in the pic but although faint, it IS present in the piece.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
Crotch in ash is nothing special (compared to crotch in any other wood), I've just moved it to this page to help un-clutter the main white ash page.
both sides of a sample plank of a crotch piece of American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The compression curl is more pronounced in the piece than is visible in the pics
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of a crotch piece of American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The compression curl is more pronounced in the piece than is visible in the pics
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of a crotch piece of American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
karelian grained
"Karelian/masur" is a particular type of birch, and not, to my knowledge, of any other species. It forms oval "eyes" in the wood, sometimes surrounded by dark lines. Mark found this American white ash that has a pattern that is often quite similar to the pattern found in karelian birch, and has decided, quite reasonably I think, to call it "karelian grained" because that's the most accurate figure designation for it. It seems to be caused, as you can see in the end grain shots, by extremely large "rays" or perhaps they are some weird kind of branch inclusion.
both sides of a sample plank of karelian grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of karelian grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of karelian grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of karelian grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
"Olive ash" is SPECIFICALLY the heartwood of Fraxinus excelsior and only when it is swirly. There is a page on this site devoted to such ash. Mark, however, has found American white ash (Fraxinus americana) that has a very similar grain. Neither he nor I had previously experienced this in white ash and I consider it unusual enough to warrant this separate listing.
both sides of a sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
both sides of a sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
both sides of a branch-inclusion area of a sample plank of a olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a crotch piece sample plank of olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of curly olive grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The curl is weak and it is a bit more obvious in the wood than it is in these pics.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
"Tamo ash" is a term that includes several Japanese ash species and that often has a very particularly swirly grain pattern. There is a page on this site devoted to this type of ash but Mark has found some American white ash that exhibits a grain pattern that is very unlike normal white ash and is in fact quite similar to Tamo ash, so I have included it here instead of on the regular white ash page.
both sides of a sample plank of tamo grained American white ash / Fraxinus americana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
