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question about ash - can you predict weight by looks?


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so I need some ash... place near me has 8/4 for $4bf.  great... but it comes in 10' pieces and I'm hopefully going to get a 13" wide board.  I am going by myself and as it were... i'm no power lifter.  so... I'll have ltd ability to dig through a stack as I'll have to do it myself. 

so with that in mind... and considering that it's impossible to 'feel' the difference in weight between one super heavy board and another... i have this question:

can you make any sort of general prediction about ash based on end grain, or surface grain?  I would guess that if the end grain is more tight... it's going to be more heavy... but what say you? 

other things you would look for in ash?

personally, I hate the straight grained ash, and I love the 'swirly' grain stuff - the stuff that no one else seems to like.  I gather that it is also possibly/generally more heavy?

let the schooling begin...

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You're right, the tighter the end grain is the heavier the wood. However, it also depends on the dampness. The wide fast grown stripes are those that carry most of the water, the more the closer to the surface (bark) they are. So a moisture meter might help you some.

Potentially the swirly grain stuff is heavier as you supposed, since it has more of that slow grown grain.

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3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

You're right, the tighter the end grain is the heavier the wood. However, it also depends on the dampness. The wide fast grown stripes are those that carry most of the water, the more the closer to the surface (bark) they are. So a moisture meter might help you some.

Potentially the swirly grain stuff is heavier as you supposed, since it has more of that slow grown grain.

thanks for the reply.  afa water... my contention would assume both boards being compared (tight vs wide grain) have been sufficiently dried.  I'm in AZ (VERY DRY DESERT) and all the wood I've bought so far has been really dry.  Also, it's about to go in a garage where it will reg hit 120 so... whatever moisture is there should be getting naturally dealt with!  anywho... paying a visit today so... we'll see how it goes.

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4 hours ago, mistermikev said:

so... got a 9' 10" 8/4 board and a 9' 6" 8/4 board.  just weighed one of the sections I had it cut down to and looks like 3.15lbs/bft - yes! 

Plus you got some weight lifting excercise!

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