[wally2q]

Same story here. we're just west of the GTA.
... yes - here is a story of live-edge processing of ash.

The 1st ash tree that died here was probably 4 years go. The last one in my back yard died just this past year.
I burn them as well in the fireplace - but the bigger ones I cut to lumber.....

I had one that died in 2019... it was tall, straight, and 20-22" in diameter. it stood dead for 1 year and I finally cut it down in the fall of 2020 and cut it into 10.5' and 8.5' logs... I had 2 of each... yes close to 40 feet of clean straight ash log!
Had a guy come in with a portable sawmill, and I had it cut into live edge boards, 1.5 and 2.5" thick.
It cost me $400 cash to get it cut - more than I should have paid... 1st time i've done that, so chalk it up to lack of experience. It should have cost about $250 to do that.

The boards sat in my garage stacked (ends sealed) and spaced, drying for 2.5 years. Then late 2022 and into 2023, I used this wood to make:
1. Two double beds w. live edge headboards: 1 for my son and 1 for my daughter
2. A king size bed with live edge headboard for the guest room
3. Several night-stand cabinets (including a stand for my 3D printer)
4. A high-top dining table (bar height), and 6 stools
5. Two coffee tables
6. Two bench-seats to go with the coffee tables
In each case, it was 100% ash wood. for all parts - both structural, and finishes & decorative parts.
I also gave away a few boards and 1 thick slab to a buddy of mine - he made some shelves for his finished-basement project.

Ash behaves very much like oak when woodworking with it. It's quite strong and quite hard. Not as strong as hard as oak, but close.
Any wood need to sit for minimum 2 years to properly dry. Otherwise it will twist and bend and crack or rot as noted in other posts. All depends where and how you store it. It is not as resilient against rot in outdoor environments like white oak, or cedar. I wouldn't use it in perpetually humid or wet environments.

I know what you're thinking: "pics or it didn't happen".... so here goes.....

Sawmill ops in driveway:

One of the benches below. Note the Ash-Borer tracks in the edge of the wood... I really gives it character!
note: all the stuff is the same color - like the bench below... some of the other photo's look like a different stain - but it's just the LED lighting.

Bar height table. It looks smaller but it is 7.5ft long, and 3.5ft wide. The stools are 22" wide.

The lumber did develop some cracks, so I epoxied them and reinforced with butterfly joints. The table slab is just over 2.25" thick - again you can see the tracks from the beetle. The table is actually 2 slabs - not epoxied to each other... there is a gap in between, but it's not big... this is so when I have to move the table, I can unscrew the leg structure and have the 2 separate slabs.... easier for handling. Each slab weighs probably 100lbs.

The stool top (bottom left) even has some bark still on it as well.
2" diameter iron black-pipe for table legs

I've done woodwork before, but not like this....
This had me learn a lot through a whole bunch of "firsts".... 1st sawmill operation... 1st live-edge slab work... 1st butterfly joint... 1st epoxy filled slab... 1st chair / stool leg-set (structural yet not "too thick" that can support my weight reliably without breaking) etc etc...

 

[wally2q]

They will not climb them or cut from the bottom because of widow makers dropping on the cutter. Just saying…be very careful. The trees I took down were solid on the bottom but many were very sketchy on top.

100% spot on. Seen it myself. Depending on the size, gotta be really diligent, and have a safety observer looking up for anything sketchy happening.....

 

[wally2q]

The ash borers decmiated the baseball bat production in the USA.

I still wonder what the real benefit is of quarantines and transport restrictions when it comes to invasives like this.

They simply don't work, no matter how stringent they are.

I'm presuming they are just feel good/noise to cover up the real issues behind the importation/detection of invasives and the only effective solution which is pesticides.

And of course no one is going to bring back close inspection of things coming into the US that can carry invasives nor are are they going to crank up the DDT machine.

Thats right. This can't be stopped. All they are doing is slowing it down... but it's inevitable.

Interstingly, the bug that's responsible for dutch elm disease (Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles.), went through here about 15-17 years ago.
All the elm trees were gone. I lost 4 fully mature elm trees in my front yard.
Well guess what... about 2-3 years after the trees disappeared, an elm sucker popped up from the root of one of the trees I cut down, and started growing. The tree is now about 50ft tall and about 6-7" in diameter and doing well - because there is no more elm bark beetles around (nothing left for them to eat).

 

[wally2q]

I've never done this myself but was told that ash is particularly easy to bend and form under heat and steam treatment. Apparently easy and flexible to work with in that regard.

So for curved items like walking sticks etc. I would imagine it's popular