You can use ashwood for any woodworking project that you would red oak: chairs, tables, desks, and cabinets. Although durable to exposure from the elements, it wonot, however, weather as well as white oak in outdoor projects. Carvers and woodturners view ashwood the same as red oak. Its hardness and coarse grain make it difficult to work. Ash wood (Fraxinus americana) grows from the East to the Midwest. Green ash and blue ash. Green ash and blue ash-with somewhat weaker wood-share the same range, and commercially, they are harvested and marketed together. Preferring the well-drained loam soil found in river valleys, white ash can grow to 120² tall and a diameter of 6² with nearly half the trunk height clear of branches.