Ulcombe JoineryUlcombe, Kent
MenuMore
Enquire

Four boards. Three species.

Compare appearance, working properties and suitable uses. Property figures are cited or labelled illustrative.

Rendered illustration · oak, walnut, ash and olive ash · hardwax oiled · workshop light

Working properties

Four boards over three species. Every cell is cited and dated, or set in [ brackets ] and labelled illustrative. No durability class is assigned here; the cited species descriptions do not establish a tested class for a particular board or finished piece.

Working properties of four boards over three species, with the source of every cell.
PropertyEuropean oak
Quercus robur		American black walnut
Juglans nigra		European ash
Fraxinus excelsior		Olive ash
Fraxinus excelsior
Density at 12 % moisture content720 kg/m³4660 kg/m³6710 kg/m³5710 kg/m³5
Moisture movementMedium4Medium6Medium5Medium5
Natural durability, heartwoodDurable to slightly durable4Moderately durable6Not durable5Not durable5
TreatabilityHeartwood extremely difficult; sapwood easy4Extremely difficult6Moderately easy5Moderately easy5
Working qualitiesMedium to difficult. Machines easily or with moderate difficulty depending on how the tree grew and how the board was dried; quarter-sawn faces need careful planing to avoid tearing the grain.4Works easily and well with hand and machine tools, takes hand carving and turnery, and finishes cleanly from the tool.6Good. Tough, but works and machines well to a reasonably smooth finish, and takes glue, stain and polish.5Good. Tough, but works and machines well to a reasonably smooth finish, and takes glue, stain and polish.5
DryingVery slow, with a marked tendency to split and check in the early stages, and a honeycombing risk if forced.4Rather slow, with a tendency to honeycomb.6Fairly rapid without excessive surface checking or splitting, though it can distort under severe conditions and end-split.5Fairly rapid without excessive surface checking or splitting, though it can distort under severe conditions and end-split.5
Shrinkage, green to ovendry[ No dated figure published here ] illustrativeRadial 5.5 %, tangential 7.8 %, volumetric 12.8 %7[ No dated figure published here ] illustrative[ No dated figure published here ] illustrative
Typical usesInterior joinery, exterior joinery, flooring, furniture, cladding, decking, heavy structural work, sleepers.4Furniture.6Interior joinery, furniture, flooring.5Interior joinery, furniture, flooring.5
Density at 12 % moisture contentkg/m³ · Timber Development UK
  • 720Oak
  • 660Walnut
  • 710Ash
  • 710Olive ash

Two of those columns are one species

Fraxinus excelsior L., family Oleaceae. European ash and Olive ash come from the same species. Olive ash contains decorative dark heartwood streaks; pale ash has a more even appearance. Ask to see boards together when a consistent colour or a continuous figure matters.

Ash and olive ash are the same species. Olive ash is cut through the darker, streaked heartwood; the pale outer wood is sold as ash.

What each board is unsuitable for

Start with the conditions the finished piece will face. These notes flag material and programme limitations to discuss before specifying.

European oak
  • Any application needing preservative to penetrate the heartwood, which is extremely difficult to treat.4
  • A programme with no drying time in it. Oak dries very slowly and splits, checks and honeycombs if it is hurried.4
  • [ Contact with ferrous fixings where the timber may be wetted: the reaction stains the oak blue-black and attacks the fixing. ] illustrative
American black walnut
  • Work needing treated heartwood: it is extremely difficult to treat.6
European ash
  • Anything exposed to wetting, inside or out. Ash heartwood is not durable, and no finish makes it so.5
Olive ash
  • Anything exposed to wetting. It is the same species as ash and carries the same durability: not durable.5
  • [ A long run that must match along its length. The streak is a natural heart feature and it moves from board to board, which is the reason to choose it and the reason it cannot be matched. ] illustrative

Sources and reference scope

4tduk-oak
Timber Development UKWood Species — Oak, Europeanreproduced by TDUK from the TRADA Red Books and Wood Information Sheets; 139-species librarytimberdevelopment.ukRead 2026-09-12
5tduk-ash
Timber Development UKWood Species — Ash, Europeanreproduced by TDUK from the TRADA Red Books and Wood Information Sheets; 139-species librarytimberdevelopment.ukRead 2026-09-12
6tduk-walnut
Timber Development UKWood Species — Walnut, Americanreproduced by TDUK from the TRADA Red Books and Wood Information Sheets; 139-species librarytimberdevelopment.ukRead 2026-09-12
7fpl-282-ch4
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products LaboratoryGlass, S.V.; Zelinka, S.L. 2021. Chapter 4: Moisture relations and physical properties of wood. In: Wood handbook — wood as an engineering materialGeneral Technical Report FPL-GTR-282. Madison, WIresearch.fs.usda.govRead 2026-09-12
8fpl-282-ch5
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products LaboratorySenalik, C.A.; Farber, B. 2021. Chapter 5: Mechanical properties of wood. In: Wood handbook — wood as an engineering materialGeneral Technical Report FPL-GTR-282. Madison, WI. 46 ppresearch.fs.usda.govRead 2026-09-12
11fpl-structure
USDA Forest Products LaboratoryStructure and Function of WoodWiedenhoeft and Miller, 2005, p. 17research.fs.usda.govRead 2026-09-13
9gbif-backbone
Global Biodiversity Information FacilityGBIF Backbone Taxonomy — species/match APIqueried with strict=true for each binomialapi.gbif.orgRead 2026-09-12