Help/Advice using Cherry for the first time

[Wayne Bitting]

Howdy Everyone – don’t tell those crazy turners, but I’ve got some flatwork to do and for the first time its not going to be MDF! I’m looking for any hints, tricks, worries and general advice for working with cherry. I couldn’t afford to buy extra, so I’ve got to do this right the first time (I’ve made full scale drawings and templates). This is going to be a custom crib for my first born. The wood is ready for pickup at the mill on my way home from work so I’ll let it breath tonight in the shop and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to start sorting it all out. I don’t have access to a planer to jointer so I had to pay a milling fee, so everything is cut to length plus a half inch. Thanks in advance for the advice! Wayne

[Mark Roderick]

Cherry is a wonderful wood to work with. I'm not sure whether you're saying that this is the first time you've worked with a real wood rather than MDF, but if it is you need to take into account the expansion and shrinkage of the wood. Also, I'm a little skeptical of getting everything pre-cut from the lumberyard. The wood is very likely to get dryer when it moves from the lumberyard into your house, and this drying is going to cause the wood to shrink and cup and twist a little. Normally you'd bring the wood in, let it acclimate for a few weeks, then flatten it.

[Bruce Page]

Be sure to use a sealer when finishing to avoid blotching.

Cherry burns easily so make sure your table saw is dialed in.

When routing, use a continuous motion, e.g. do not let the bit dwell or it will cause burn marks.

[Ellen Benkin]

Cherry darkens in light. Make sure to cover all the pieces when you finish each day while you are building the piece.

[Prashun Patel]

If you can, don't stain it. Let it be it's natural color. Little bit of oil to pop the grain, then a clear topcoat. It's prettiest that way (IMHO!)

[David Keller NC]

Wayne - if you've gotten the wood planed and jointed by the mill, it's absolutely essential that you carefully stack and sticker it when you get it home. "Stack and sticker" refers to laying out a three or four cross-members on a flat surface (like a garage floor), laying your first board down on those, putting in some more cross-members directly over the ones on the floor (the "stickers"), putting on another board, etc.. until you've all of your lumber in the stack.

Then top it off with a last set of stickers, lay a piece of plywood on top (or a piece of mdf, or a scrap pine board, or whatever), and weight the whole stack down with some leftover car batteries, water-filled milk jugs, big rocks, or whatever you have available to get at least 80 lbs. on the stack.

If you don't do this, there's a very, very high probability that the wider boards will cup, and some of the boards may twist or bow - perhaps to the point of being unusable, and certainly enough to frustrate you when you put the piece together.

You should wait about 2 weeks for the wood to reach equilibrium with your shop environment, and to be really cautious about it, you should stack and sticker your finished parts if you can't get them glued up on the same day you're working with them.

This is the price for working with natural wood vs. engineered sheet goods, but most of us think it's well worth it.

[Wayne Bitting]

The wood was all 4/4 dry before he planed it down to 3/4 squared/jointed it. Will it still bow and twist while its aging at my shop? Does it need the full two weeks since it was dry? Thanks

[David Keller NC]

"Will it still bow and twist while its aging at my shop? Does it need the full two weeks since it was dry?"

yes.

[Ken Werner]

Will it still bow and twist while its aging at my shop? Does it need the full two weeks since it was dry? Thanks

It might. But the precautions above will help prevent this.

Since it was dry, it needs time to equilibrate to your shop. Two weeks is a rule of thumb. One week is better than one day. Two weeks may be better than one. While you're waiting, make sure your TS blade is cleaned - free of resin, and that all your tools are sharp. Cherry works very well with sharp tools and gets real ugly without.

Last, once the piece is complete do not place items on the top surface until its had a chance to darken, lest you'll have a light shadow where the lamp, book, bowl etc. sat.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Wayne...cherry out here is extremely expensive. I just paid $273 for 2 10' boards of cherry. I let it acclimate in my shop for over a month before I started milling it last weekend.


BTW...I'll tell those crazy turners you are doing the "F" word....

[Lee Schierer]

Before you make the first cut. Make sure your saw is well aligned and you have a sharp blade. Burn marks are hard to remove from cherry and are easily formed if the saw blade is dull or the blade is misaligned with the miter slot and fence.

Then l;ayout all your boards and mark what they are to be used for with chalk. Draw cut lines with the chalk before you start cutting to make sure you have enough wood. Use an optimization program like Sheetlayout to determine the best way to use the wood you have. Measure twice cut once.

When routing you don't ever want to stop moving the cutter along the board or a burn mark is likely. Take light cuts even if it means 2 -3 passes.

Sand to 220 grit and finish with at least 3 coats Deft Clear wood finish, it will pop the grain and allow the wood to darken naturally. Here's a box I did with Deft.http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/emilyjewel2.jpg

Good luck and remember no pictures, it didn't happen. We want to see the finished piece.

[Chris Padilla]

What Lee said...we need pics! Pics of the new wood...pics of the stickering...pics of newspapers with the dates on it so we can confirm the amount of time you let it acclimate! Don't mess around with us...we're diehards here! ;)

:D :D

[Ken Werner]

I just paid $273 for 2 10' boards of cherry.

Wow Ken, that's pricey. How many board feet did you get?

[Jim Kountz]

Wayne...cherry out here is extremely expensive. I just paid $273 for 2 10' boards of cherry. I let it acclimate in my shop for over a month before I started milling it last weekend.


BTW...I'll tell those crazy turners you are doing the "F" word....

Holy smokes Ken, that is nuts isnt it? FAS here is about $3.75 and really good figured stuff can run upwards of about $5 but thats about it.
Ya need me to send ya some??:D:D

[Howard Miller]

Lee,
Finish looks good. Would the Deft work well for bathroom vanity? Can it be sprayed, or is it just for brushing.

[Ken Werner]

23 board feet, if my math is correct. Holy mackerel that is pricey!!! I use cherry alot, and I'm ashamed to tell you what the most I've paid is. It sure is a wonderful wood to work though.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken...I forget the exact board feet...1 board was 8/4 x 10' x 8" and the other was 8/4 x 10' x 6"

[Greg Cuetara]

What everyone has already said. I got some cherry and left it in my shop for 2 months before i started working with it. The longer you can wait the better off you are. If you are really worried go pick up a moisture meter and check it when you pick it up and then check it in a week or two after you got it in your shop. I think it should be in the 6-8% range before you start to work with it.

The box Lee made came out great. When it comes time to finish go into the finishing forum and do some searching for cherry. I used a method of a few coats of de-waxed shellac and then 4 to 5 coats of waterlox. A nice clear finish like Lee used or waterlox brings out the character in cherry.

good luck and show us some pictures.

Greg

[Wayne Bitting]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I picked up half of it last night and the other half this afternoon. Its stacked in the shop and waiting for me. I was hoping to get it started this weekend, but the baby's room still needs paint, the lawn mowed and fertilized, Easter feast made, a deck built, and slider put in- that's just this weekend:eek: (Okay, maybe I'll make it two weekends. I tend to burn the candle at both ends and at the middle!)

[Bob Hallowell]

Ken...I forget the exact board feet...1 board was 8/4 x 10' x 8" and the other was 8/4 x 10' x 6"


That's some expensive wood. If I don't mind waiting a year for it to dry I can pick up nice cherry for the whooping price of .40 a bdf.

Bob

[David Keller NC]

Actually, that's quite reasonable for prime cherry. One has to remember that just like maple, "utility" cherry that has a fair amount of sapwood and sap inclusions is pretty cheap - perhaps $5-$7 a b.f. in a retail setting around here (NC).

Good cherry, the stuff worth working with and that will be on a show surface on a piece of furniture, has little to no sapwood, a good, rich color (the "utility" stuff is often quite pale), and little to no knots, pin knots, bark inclusions or sap pockets will be in the $9 - $12 a b.f. range.

It's not unusual for me to meet new woodworkers that are really shocked by the price of good cherry, but that's because they've never seen it - in the last 10-15 years, virtually 100% of the high-grade stuff was turned into veneer, and only highly specialized micro-mills like Irion could get the truly exceptional wood.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David,

A lot of the price here is probably shipping too! Not too much in the way of hardwoods grown in large quantities nearby. I'm lucky as a turner because I live in an area that was once a commercial orchards for the Inland Northwest. I get some turning woods but good straight dry wood for flatwork is in extremely short supply in this part of the country. Pine, fir, etc....pretty easy to come by.

[Bill White]

Whatever you do, DON'T splat polyurethane :eek: crap on that cherry. Wipe on varnish or shellac, or just oil and wax.
Bill

[Frank Drew]

If you can, don't stain it. Let it be it's natural color.

I couldn't agree more, Shawn; IMO stained cherry never develops the richness and depth of color of cherry allowed to darken and mellow with age.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee,
Finish looks good. Would the Deft work well for bathroom vanity? Can it be sprayed, or is it just for brushing.

Deft can be sprayed and even comes in spray cans, but I wouldn't recommend it for a bathroom application. Too much humidity. Use a polyurethane finish. Varathane Diamond floor finish has worked well for me in bathroom applications. However, it is only available in gallon sized contianers.

[Chip Lindley]

Don't DISS the POLY! It has its uses! Doesn't *water mark* like shellac. Doesn't *blush* like lacquer when sprayed! That *just sprayed* look can be made nice with very fine steel wool or 3-M pads. DeftThane is just another very durable, crystal-clear finish when made to *NOT* look plastic!