What kind of wood is Hitty made from?
A Hitty friend has stated that the original Hitty appears to be made from Mountain Ash wood, and had this further to say: ” Unless one cuts a sliver of her wood and examines the cells under a microscope, we can not be sure. Most Mountain Ash wood has very irregular dark lines, unlike white ash wood which has very regular alternating light colored wood with darker, open pore grain. When I examined the original doll, in the area inside her hip joints where there was no paint, and on areas of her face where the paint had worn off, it appeared to me that the wood was far more like white ash than mountain ash. The two “ash” woods are from entirely different families. Mountain ash is a member of the “Cherry” fruit tree family. Check any Audubon or other guide to Eastern American trees. BUT: I’ve also carved Hittys from small limbs pruned from mountain ash trees, and they have a far more regular grain pattern showing that is much closer to white ash grain than mountain ash cut from a larger t
