Posted by Jack Smith on March 23, 2000 at 16:43:40:
In Reply to: box wood/custom mill work posted by GLOBAL HARDWOODS on March 23, 2000 at 12:25:13:
Please don't take this as an assault on your posting, but your offering of ash for bed wood is ill-informed. Please be advised that ash might be a good look-alike for oak, but it decays rapidly outdoors. It does not contain the highly acid extractives that oak does, and it is also very water permeable, as it is a ring-porous hardwood, and will wick up water rapidly through the end grain. White oak is the wood of choice, as it seals its own pores through the deposit of tyloses, which close off the water conduits, as the heartwood forms. That's why white oak is used for liquid barrels. You cold make a barrel from ash, but the liquid would leak out of the open pores. If your truck is kept indoors, I guess the difference wouldn't matter that much, but then, good white oak heartwood is common, and costs about the same as ash. Black locust is also a good choice, being almost impermeable to decay fungi. It resembles oak, is incrementally harder, stronger, and heavier, and is readily available all over the Eastern US. A more costly alternative to hardwood is old growth longleaf yellow pine heartwood, which is available from Southern mills, and come from underwater salvaged logs a century or more old. It is heavy, as hard as china, rot-proof, and very good looking. BTW, most factory bed wood is yellow pine, although not of first quality.
There are dozens of good alternative woods for truck beds, and literally hundreds if you count foreign imports. Ash would be right at the very bottom of the list. Ref: Hoadley On Wood, Taunton Press, & The International Book of Wood, (pub unknown)
I do not sell wood for these purposes at the present time, but I am involved in the ownership and operation of a managed timber tract, and I produce finished lumber from our own sawlogs. Anyone who needs assistance on wood selection or other technical data on the wood sciences, please contact me off forum, and I'll be glad to assist.