How hard is White Ash?

White Ash has a Janka hardness of 1320 lbf (5,870 N), a USDA Forest Products Laboratory value at 12% moisture content. That puts it above red oak and just below hard maple, with moderate weight, high strength, and high stiffness.

Can White Ash be used outdoors?

No. White Ash heartwood is rated perishable to non-durable with moderate to poor insect resistance, so it is not suited to outdoor or ground-contact use without treatment.

What is White Ash good for, and how does it work?

It works well by hand or machine and glues, stains, and finishes well, and it steam-bends better than any other domestic wood. Typical uses include baseball bats, hockey sticks, oars and paddles, tool handles, turnings, flooring, furniture, and bent-wood work.

DomesticFraxinus americana

White Ash

The bat. The handle. The bent chair-back. The wood the borer is taking.

White Ash (Fraxinus americana) is a domestic hardwood with a Janka hardness of 1320 lbf. The benchmark shock-resistant hardwood, it has light to medium brown heartwood with a slight gray or olive cast and steam-bends better than any other domestic wood.

Category: Domestic
Janka: 1,320 lbf
Botanical: Fraxinus americana
Shipped at: 6–8% MC

Fraxinus americana Eastern United States and southeastern Canada

Eastern United States and southeastern Canada.

The benchmark shock-resistant domestic hardwood. Heartwood light to medium brown, often with a slight gray or olive cast.

Detail of White Ash grain — figured wood texture, photographed at Raw Heartwood — A close read on the grain. Detail of this specimen

What you see.

Heartwood light to medium brown, often with a slight gray or olive cast. Wide pale sapwood, beige to nearly white, usually distinct. Reads a lot like red oak — slightly lighter, more uniform.

Heartwood color detail of White Ash (Fraxinus americana)

Heartwood, this specimen

How the grain runs.

Straight, regular. Coarse uneven texture from the ring-porous structure. Strong growth-ring contrast like oak. Not much ray figure.

Closer in

On the bench.

Heartwood perishable to non-durable. Moderate to poor insect resistance. Not for outdoor or ground contact without treatment. Works well by hand or machine. Glues, stains, finishes well. Steam-bends as well as anything domestic — that is the trick it is famous for. None when dry. Reported skin irritation, runny nose, and respiratory symptoms in sensitized workers. Not a strong sensitizer overall.

The numbers, looked at directly.

Janka Hardness

0lbf

5,870 N. Side-hardness — force to embed a half-inch steel ball halfway into the wood.

Average Dried Weight

0lbs/ft³

675 kg/m³. At 12% MC.

Specific Gravity

0.55/ 0.60 at 12% MC

Basic over green volume; second number at 12% moisture content.

Hardness, in context

A side-hardness measurement. Higher number, harder wood.

Shrinkage — radial / tangential / volumetric

4.9%radial

7.8%tangential

13.3%volumetric

On sourcing

EAB has rewritten the long-term outlook for this species.

Not on CITES. IUCN lists Fraxinus americana as Critically Endangered now — Emerald Ash Borer has run through the population since the early 2000s and the long-term outlook is bad. Salvage and standing commercial supply still moves, for now. Ask before you spec a big job.

What it's for.

Baseball bats
Hockey sticks
Oars & paddles
Tool handles
Turnings
Flooring
Furniture
Bent-wood work

Worth knowing.

The benchmark shock-resistant domestic hardwood. Moderate weight, high strength, high stiffness, bends like nothing else. EAB-killed salvage is a growing share of what is available. That will not last forever.

Sources & references.

Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-282) — USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (2021)
White Ash (Fraxinus americana) — FPL Tech Sheet — USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory
Silvics of North America: Fraxinus americana L. — White Ash — Schlesinger, Richard C. (USDA Forest Service) (1990)
Fraxinus americana — IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Critically Endangered) — Westwood, M.; Oldfield, S.; Jerome, D.; Romero-Severson, J. (2017)
Fraxinus americana — Wikipedia contributors
White Ash (Fraxinus americana) — The Wood Database
Emerald Ash Borer Information Network — USDA Forest Service; Michigan State University; Purdue University; Ohio State University
Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Common questions.

How hard is White Ash?: White Ash has a Janka hardness of 1320 lbf (5,870 N), a USDA Forest Products Laboratory value at 12% moisture content. That puts it above red oak and just below hard maple, with moderate weight, high strength, and high stiffness.
Can White Ash be used outdoors?: No. White Ash heartwood is rated perishable to non-durable with moderate to poor insect resistance, so it is not suited to outdoor or ground-contact use without treatment.
What is White Ash good for, and how does it work?: It works well by hand or machine and glues, stains, and finishes well, and it steam-bends better than any other domestic wood. Typical uses include baseball bats, hockey sticks, oars and paddles, tool handles, turnings, flooring, furniture, and bent-wood work.

From the library to your bench