white ash weight vs hickory.

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

Been a while since i handled white ash, but I just cut some pieces a few weeks ago and noticed it seems really light in hand compared to hickory. I dont really remember this being the case, but it's been a while.  Just wondering if others find that white ash is light weight compared to hickory or elm, or perhaps its just the location that i cut it in.

[Slackbunny]

Hickory has a SG of about .72 and white ash has a SG of 0.54 to 0.66. So it is definitely lighter than hickory.  At its heaviest ash is about 90% of the weight of a comparable piece of hickory, and at its lightest it is only 75% of the weight of hickory. So if you have a light piece of ash it would probably be noticeably lighter.

[JackCrafty]

Yep, all the ash I've used was much lighter than the hickory.

[DarkSoul]

European ash can vary enormously in specific gravity. Some pieces can be as dense as hickory, while some are as dense as spruce. Accordingly, there is also a huge variation in the quality of the wood - the higher SG obviously being much better. The less earlywood and the more latewood, the better the piece. Some ash can be exceptional quality, while the majority is just 'nice' at best. The lower SG wood is so weak, that you need to design the bow as if the wood were spruce...
I'm pretty sure the same will account for American white ash, although maybe to a lesser extent. If possible (when buying a board for example) get a piece with fat rings, thin earlywood and a lot of latewood.