Re: Ash for toy blocks?

[Charlie Self]

Thomas Mitchell asks:

I have never used ash. Is there a reason why ash should not be used to >make unfinished toy bocks? Does the wood mill pretty well? An >alternative would be maple, but maple is $1 more a board foot and I was >planning on making a lot of blocks.

Use soft maple. That shouldn't be a buck more a bf than ash.

Charlie Self

`I don't care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to. When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace.' Will Rogers

[Tim V]

I use poplar when I made blocks for my son. Poplar holds paint very well and it's probably the least expensive aside from pine.

Tim

------ see my page @

(seriously needs updating)

[Terry King]

2 Cents: I used Maple for my kids blocks.

They were finished with beeswax+mineral oil. Most of them are still in pretty good shape.

I made them in 1961

I still get to play with them sometimes, mostly with Grandchildren.

New ones (more kids need them than in 1961) are Cherry, with same finish. Not as hard / dent-resistant, but they're pretty. Fortunately, Cherry grows on our place. Easy to carve, too. Each new kid has one Cherry block with their name one side, and their birth date on the opposite side.

You won't be sorry that you put some effort into making blocks for kids.

[Thomas Mitchell]

Exactly why I'm making them... :)

I've been using a hard maple for toy train cars and it mills really nice. Guess it would't hurt to try some soft maple.

[HarryM]

We make block sets of hard maple and sell them unfinished. Customers who have had them nearly twenty years says they are still like new. The set I made for my grandson is seventeen years old and never dented or splintered. harrym