Its either acidic or base. My grandmother was french Canadian in Northern Maine and they would save their wood ashes and leech water through them and combine the liquid with tallow to make soap.

All I know is having helped her it is caustic.Burned the shit out of my hands. Fine in small quantities but if you live in New England and run 2 stoves all winter you really don't want all that ash in your garden. Better to use as ice melt.

But Im no expert-I bet in some cases it would work great. I used ashes in my raised beds and nothing would grow. Not even weeds, but I didn't write my ms thesis on the affect of wood ash in gardens. Was your minor interpretive dance?

Researched: you are right. 5-10 pounds is good for soil amendment. The hell with you do with the 4-5 hundred pounds that burning a few cords produce unless you have a farm. Anything over 5-10 lbs in a 100 square feet is not good and will kill what you are putting it on. I've got 2 Defiant stoves and burn 5-8 cords a winter living in Jeff's. That's a bit of ash.