It’s time for back-to-school. I’m a high school science teacher and we’re returning to all online learning in about a week-and-a-half. We had our first all-district professional development today. It was awful… not because the information wasn’t useful, but because they were so gung-ho to present all the awesome things they had learned from preparing all summer that they fire-hosed every bit of information they could cram into it. The equivalent of me turning over the entirety of my semester’s curriculum to my students on the first day and then asking them if they have any questions… There’s only so much information the human mind can process at a time. Science clocks our abilities at somewhere between 60 and 120 bits per second, which is about what we reach talking to a single person. After feeling overwhelmed by the good intentions of my district administrators I needed some downtime.
I managed to get a few fresh-cut logs by posting on the neighborhood message board and I had yet to tackle some pieces of particularly gnarly ash. After studying the halves closely I decided maybe I could get some ladles, spoons, and maybe a gooseneck bowl out of the twisted piece, so away I went. A couple of wedges, a sledgehammer, and a lot of pounding got me a few pieces split out that had some promise and then I switched to the hatchet for some rough shaping.
It’s very early in my green woodworking experience, so I figure any time I can spend using the tools will go a long way in developing proficiency. If there’s any advice I can give to a fledgling woodworker, it’s simply to take the blade to the wood as often as possible. There’s no substitute for experience. I can tell I’m getting better with the hatchet and knife. Although it’s tempting to go to the bandsaw and cut the pieces much quicker, I’m committed to going straight edge all the way and I am learning to hate the dust of the bandsaw. Hoping I can get to the point where I’m mostly making stop cuts and splitting to rough shape my pieces for carving.
It turns out this is just the kind of mental break and rejuvenation I needed, and now I’m back here on the computer motivated to post for you all.
Szience.com 
Enjoyed your post and that’s some great looking wood with lots of creative possibilities. The even better news is that it isn’t ash, although the leaves look enough like ash that it is sometimes called ash-leaved maple. It is a type of maple commonly called box elder (Acer negundo). https://www.wood-database.com/box-elder/ Those pinkish red streaks are often present in it. It will be great for spoon carving and the like. Happy carving!
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Thanks, Dave! Getting noticed by you is just the motivation I need to get me to post more regularly. Sorry it took me so long to reply. It’s been a very long week trying to adapt to online teaching. Things are settling in now, but lots of long hours of preparation. The more I cut into it the more it looks like maple. Especially when I get clean cuts. It’s pretty hard to work. Especially the larger bowl I’m attempting. A lot of the pieces have some curly sections that are especially difficult to get clean cuts in. I’ll probably have to do a fair bit of sanding in the end. I got a few pieces of aspen and pine that are a downright dream to carve relative to this stuff and a nice change when I get frustrated.
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