Ash Wood

[Short John Bronze]

Ash is well known for its strength and flexibility: tent poles, tool handles, bell stays, sports equipment, bows etc.
As an experiment (and to play with my new Proxxon FET table saw!) I cut some thin strips of ash - about 1.5mm thick. Even though the wood was very dry the strips bend easily even without soaking. The picture below shows a 35mm radius bend. It seems that this would be a very useful material for planking bluff bowed ships. If the colour and grain are considered inappropriate it could still be used on a painted or deeply varnished hull. As far as I know it never seems to appear in any kits. Why not?

 

[Bryian]

It would be interesting to see how you go using it. Perhaps there’s a lot of colour variation which doesn’t suit ship modeling.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I built a full size ballista out of solid ash. For modelling, Ash has too open a grain for my taste.

 

[Van]

Ash is a light wood but the grain can be very noticeable (and way out of scale). The trees are being devastated by the ash borer and a lot of wood is being cut. So price is less than a lot of other hardwoods. If painting the wood grain shouldn't be a problem