White ash and oak look so alike that ash is often mistaken for oak, and the two are used for many of the same things: furniture, flooring, cabinets and trim. Both are ring-porous hardwoods with bold, open grain. This page compares white ash with red and white oak using Wood Handbook data, explains how to tell them apart, and says where each one is the better choice.
Ash vs Oak: the numbers
| Property | White ash | Northern red oak | White oak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% MC | 1,320 lbf | 1,290 lbf | 1,360 lbf |
| Density at 12% MC | 42.0 lb/ft³ | 44.1 lb/ft³ | 47.5 lb/ft³ |
| Weight per board foot | 3.50 lb | 3.67 lb | 3.96 lb |
| Bending strength (MOR), 12% MC | 15,000 psi | 14,300 psi | 15,200 psi |
| Stiffness (MOE), 12% MC | 1.74 million psi | 1.82 million psi | 1.78 million psi |
| Crushing strength parallel to grain | 7,410 psi | 6,760 psi | 7,440 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry, tangential | 7.8% | 8.6% | 10.5% |
| Shrinkage, radial | 4.9% | 4.0% | 5.6% |
| Shrinkage, volumetric | 13.3% | 13.7% | 16.3% |
| Tangential / radial ratio (cupping tendency) | 1.59 | 2.15 | 1.88 |
| Width change per 1% MC, flatsawn (Table 13-5) | 0.274% | 0.369% | 0.365% |
| Heartwood decay resistance (Table 14-1) | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant | resistant |
What the numbers mean
- Hardness: White ash is 2% harder than Northern red oak (1,320 against 1,290 lbf), so it resists dents from furniture feet, dropped tools and wear correspondingly better.
- Weight: Northern red oak is 5% heavier. A 1 x 6 board 8 feet long (4 board feet nominal) weighs about 14.7 lb in northern red oak and 14.0 lb in white ash at 12% moisture content.
- Strength and stiffness: White ash is 5% stronger in bending, but Northern red oak is 5% stiffer, and stiffness is what decides how much a shelf of the same size sags under the same load.
- Movement: a flatsawn board 10 in wide that goes from 6% to 12% moisture content (a dry winter to a humid summer indoors) swells about 0.164 in (5/32 in) in white ash and 0.221 in (7/32 in) in northern red oak, from Handbook Eq. 13-2 and the Table 13-5 coefficients. Allow for this in table tops, panels and floors.
- Decay resistance of the heartwood: White ash: slightly or nonresistant; Northern red oak: slightly or nonresistant; White oak: resistant. Sapwood of every species has low decay resistance.
- The percentages above compare the first two columns; the table also lists White oak for comparison.
Appearance, working and what to watch for
The giveaway is the rays. Oak has large, visible rays that show as flecks on quartersawn faces and as thin dark lines on flatsawn boards; ash has no large rays, so its quartersawn surface is plain. Ash is usually lighter in colour, a creamy white sapwood with light brown heartwood, while red oak has a pinkish cast and white oak an olive-tan one. Ash is a little lighter in weight than oak and close to it in hardness and strength, as the table shows.
Ash is the traditional wood for baseball bats, tool handles and oars, according to the Wood Handbook, because it combines strength, stiffness and good shock resistance at moderate weight. It steam-bends well and machines and finishes easily, taking stain evenly. Its heartwood is not durable outdoors, unlike white oak. Supply is the other difference: the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle, has killed huge numbers of ash trees across North America since it was found in 2002, so some sizes and grades of ash lumber are harder to find, while salvage ash from infested trees is common in some regions.
Buying ash today
Ash is still sold as lumber in most of the eastern US, often at prices below oak, and much of it now comes from trees removed because of the emerald ash borer. The beetle lives in and just under the bark, which is why the rules have focused on firewood, logs and bark rather than on dried, debarked lumber. The USDA removed its federal domestic ash quarantine in January 2021, but many states still restrict moving firewood, so check state and local rules before moving ash logs or firewood. For furniture makers, ash is a good substitute for white oak where decay resistance does not matter.
Which to choose: verdict by use
| Use | Better choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Chairs, bentwood and steam-bent parts | Ash | Bends well, strong and light for its strength. |
| Tool handles and sports equipment | Ash | The traditional handle and bat wood; hickory is the alternative for striking tools. |
| Outdoor furniture | White oak | Ash and red oak heartwood are not decay resistant. |
| Quartersawn figure | White oak | Ash has no large rays, so no ray fleck. |
| Floors and cabinets | Either | Similar hardness and look; choose by colour and price. |
| Light-coloured furniture with open grain | Ash | Paler than oak and takes stain evenly. |
Frequently asked questions
Is ash harder than oak?
About the same. White ash has 1,320 lbf of Janka hardness, northern red oak 1,290 lbf and white oak 1,360 lbf (Wood Handbook).
How can I tell ash from oak?
Look for rays: oak shows them as flecks on quartersawn faces and fine lines on the end grain; ash does not. Ash is also usually paler.
Is ash good for outdoor use?
No. Its heartwood is rated slightly or nonresistant in decay resistance. Use white oak, cedar or treated wood outdoors.
Sources and method
All property values are read from our parsed copy of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), a US Government publication in the public domain, the same data as the wood species database. The percentages and the board examples above are our arithmetic on those values. The values describe small, clear, straight-grained specimens: real boards with knots or sloping grain differ, and structural lumber is sized from graded design values in your local building code, not from this table.
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. How we build and check our data: methodology and corrections. Spotted an error? Please let us know.