beginnings of work benches

[tablesawtom]

The wood is Ash, the thickness is 1 1/16, and the width is 19". And I like building workbenches. The log was just over 17 foot. I gave the other half to the sawyer for his work. We loaded it on his trailer and took it to his mill about 3 miles away.

   

   

The next two are the proceeds from a different dead Ash tree which is now at the sawyer's, yet to be cut up

    . We haven't worked out the details as of yet. The person sawing off the crotch isn't me. I will have to square the log the old fashioned way. I will have to saw to lines and then use wedges and a big  sludge hammer because I do not have a broad ax. The old term is hueing to a line I believe.  The diameter is 9 inches larger than his mill will cut. The split is only in the bark which we pealed of the tree

   

   

And the last two are of me and my wife not wasting any part of the tree. She is 76 and I am 77 and we split 100 % of what you see. People like to post pictures of their projects, and this is just a different slant on the long fall project. I will admit I like working wood but the last part did get a little old.

   

   

Thanks for looking,

Tom

PS: I do not know how the repeat picture got in there but.

[jteneyck]

Good on you and your wife, Tom.  I'm 68 and my wife is 70.  We're still cutting, splitting, and carrying firewood, too.  I hope I can do it for another 10 years, too, maybe more.  We're not quite done with the firewood for this year yet, though we only need another cord or so.  My sawmill generates enough slab wood to supply most of the firewood, and it's a lot easier cutting and splitting that than rounds like you're cutting off the end of that big ash log.  

I love ash.  Saws great, dries great, a joy to work with and finishes great.  I suspect you know all that.  Too bad the EAB is going to kill it off for 40 or 50 years, and has almost succeeded where I live.  Squirrel away what you can, while you can.  

John

[tablesawtom]

I like ash for bench tops. it will absorb the blows from a mallet,  hickory, maple and oak bounce back. We use wood for supplemental heat. and only use about a cord and a half a year, maybe a little more or less depending on when winter gets here or leaves.  I figure we just did 3-4 years worth. In a way it is kind of a hard thing because I don't know if I will ever need a log splitter again. Thanks for sharing John.

The Ash around here is just going to the land fills  and what ever. But it is just to beautiful to just throw away. 

Tom