Seasoning ash for working.

paulbok

Complete novice questions coming up.

I've just taken down a medium sized ash tree in my back garden as it was crooked and growing inwards to the garden instead of vertically.
I have thought of trying to make an outdoor bench seat from parts of the trunk, so wonder how long it would need to dry out before doing anything with it?

I also need to get 2 small 400x 300mm x 75mm pieces to finish off a brick surround to our stove in the living room. Herself asked why not cut pieces from the tree to use. But whatever about a standalone outdoor piece of wood for the bench, I don't think that it could be used inside especially near a hot stove as it wasn't kiln dried. And would deform as it dried out.

Any thoughts or suggestions for both ideas?

dathi

https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/building-standards/tgd-part-j-heat-producing-appliances/technical-guidance-document-tgd
have a look at page 28 of above to see the minimum distances combustible materials can be placed to your stove

Zebbedee

paulbok wrote: »

Complete novice questions coming up.

I've just taken down a medium sized ash tree in my back garden as it was crooked and growing inwards to the garden instead of vertically.
I have thought of trying to make an outdoor bench seat from parts of the trunk, so wonder how long it would need to dry out before doing anything with it?

I also need to get 2 small 400x 300mm x 75mm pieces to finish off a brick surround to our stove in the living room. Herself asked why not cut pieces from the tree to use. But whatever about a standalone outdoor piece of wood for the bench, I don't think that it could be used inside especially near a hot stove as it wasn't kiln dried. And would deform as it dried out.

Any thoughts or suggestions for both ideas?

Read a book called 'The man who made things out of trees' by Robert Penn.
He had an ash tree felled and got lots of interesting things made out of the wood.

tabby aspreme

What size approximately is the trunk ,do you intend getting the wood sawn into planks, Ash is not a very durable timber for outdoor use, so if making a bench from planked ash it will need a lot of minding, as regards using the wood inside a 70mm thick plank would need to be air dried for two years and then brought indoors to a heated room for a further two months to acclimatize before you could work it, if not kiln dried.

paulbok

tabby aspreme wrote: »

What size approximately is the trunk ,do you intend getting the wood sawn into planks, Ash is not a very durable timber for outdoor use, so if making a bench from planked ash it will need a lot of minding, as regards using the wood inside a 70mm thick plank would need to be air dried for two years and then brought indoors to a heated room for a further two months to acclimatize before you could work it, if not kiln dried.

Thank you.
Thats what I though re the indoor pieces, will source finished wood somewhere else.

I was going to attempt a monolithic bench from the trunk, and maybe use some other pieces for the legs. Seen some on pinterest and they look good.
http://pin.it/16hIJc-
http://pin.it/q8iTezc
Whether it turns out that way is another story.
Approx 600mm diameter trunk. Won't be much of a back on it.