Doug Ash transforms chainsaw carving into lasting art and history

For artist Doug Ash, it was a life-changing school trip to the Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens in Dover, that inspired him to carve and craft objects by hand.

“After I saw the Warther Museum, I knew I was going to be a carver, it just took me a while to get to it,” Ash said. “They used to make wooden pliers for each group and would give a pair to a kid. I didn’t get the pliers, but the Warther family were a big inspiration. Seeing those wooden pliers as a kid stuck with me.”

Before carving took over, Ash paid the bills by tattooing for years, then by commercial illustration, until he decided to make his first big chainsaw-carved bear.

“I wheeled it to the end of the driveway, ran back for the sign, and by the time I returned two women were already interested and bought it,” Ash said.

Commissions began to build up, including memorial eagles standing tall over flag-draped pedestals; a run of tractors that made farm families do double-takes; and even a 14-foot guitar for C.A. House Music built from 72 individual pieces down to strings and tuners.

For large outdoor work, Ash favors white pine—lightweight and smooth-grained—though he’ll tackle a customer’s yard stump in hardwood when asked. For smaller indoor pieces, he turns to dense species like black walnut and, when he can find it, reclaimed lumber with a story.

Ash makes chainsaw art but also hand-carves many items, including chessboards and chess pieces. Chess has been a large part of his life, and he enjoys the complexity of it.

“I always thought of myself as a pretty good chess player, and I was very good whenever I was really young.”

One chessboard he built came from a centuries-old American chestnut board discovered in a local barn’s rafters. “I like reusing the old farm stuff,” he said. “It’s pretty—and it preserves a little history.”

Captivated by the character and storytelling in the medieval Lewis Chessmen, he set out one winter to carve an interpretation of the set—then kept going.

“It was about 45 days straight,” Ash said. “I’d wake up carving and fall asleep in wood shavings.” His wife, Erica, quietly tracked the hours and told him afterward he’d put close to 900 into the project.

Ash studied every angle he could find of the historic figures and then adjusted details to make them his own. The finished set, along with a hand-drawn leather map, eventually made its way to the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, where, he said, it later served as the featured centerpiece of the museum’s Crown Jewels exhibition.

For Ash, the honor wasn’t only about where the set landed. It was about why he built it.

“I want my hard work somewhere where it will still be preserved a hundred years from now,” he said. “Even some of my smaller pieces I carve, it is pretty cool to me that there is a chance they will still be around for many years after I am gone. Some of the best things I make, I want to keep, but it feels right when they end up with someone who’ll really appreciate them.”

Ash was invited to the museum last year, where his chess set was the August featured set. He met famous chess grandmasters including Yasser Seirawan, collector Jon Crumiller and others.

In the meantime, he’s back in the shop, balancing orders with the occasional passion project, trading chainsaw roar for the quiet click of a carving knife when the piece calls for it.

When asked what he’d create with no limits, Ash doesn’t hesitate: a sprawling, story-rich chess set with 100 figures, a full battlefield in miniature. It’s a fitting dream for an artist who sees angles and lines the way a chess player sees the board, seeking not just the next move but the lasting one.

To inquire about a carving job, contact Ash at 330-787-4451. Pricing varies by scope of project.