Chunk of wood ID

[LeeB]

I wonder if the beam where soaked with some kind of oil such as coal oil or deisel that turned it so dark? After this many years surely the voc's would be long since evaporated and not leave a scent as a clue.

[Dave Shepard]

I would be surprised if they were Lee. We have two Dutch barns from two different counties in New York state, and they both have this wood in them. The black ash photo in Hoadley's book is darker than the white ash photo. I'm getting another lens for the camera I think this week. It may allow me to get close enough to see those parenchyma.

[LeeB]

I don't really know much about ash as I have never been around any. I'm just throwing out guesses and trying to get answers to better educate myself.

[SwampDonkey]

It's ash alright, nothing else fits. But, black ash is light like American elm when dry. White ash is heavy and hard and lustrous, black is dull when worked, no luster. There are parenchyma joining some pores in the white ash and they don't usually do that in black. If you look close to my picture, some looked linked in a chain of pores in the late wood by the parenchyma. Dave's are more solitary, so I would say he has black ash there along with the brown heartwood. White ash would have light yellow streaks in the heartwood, not as dark as black ash.

[SwampDonkey]

that's a cool looking sled.  We don't use them around here, so I'm no judge as to whether it is built well or not, but It sure is pretty.  It looks like it would work too.  Do you wax the runners?  Do you paint the rest?

Is that one like the dogs pull?  What kind of load will it carry?  What would be the dollar value of one, if it were store-bought?

Tom your a champion.

Building an Arctic Slow Sled for some winter fun.    It's not a dogsled, but dogs could well haul it as a team. You'll have to submerge yourself in the thread to answer some of your other questions.

[Tom]

I'm already up to my blub...blub....blub.......           

[Dave Shepard]

It's black ash. Confirmed by R. Bruce Hoadley.

[SwampDonkey]

Also, note that hardwood rays are made entirely of parenchyma cells except an aggregate ray (combination of closely spaced rays, fibers and vessels).