New to Cherry. Is this typical?

[Michael Weber]

Just cut up some Cherry I got a while back at a farm for a buck a board. It's pretty rough. Air dried, lot of splits, dirt, etc. Haven't used cherry before. I was smoothing some and making a post to hold a dust collector hood I'm working on. After cleaning and laminating a board to get a 3x3 post, I notice a pattern on a thin strip I cut off to get to final dimension. Pictures attached. Is this pattern typical for cherry or is something going on with this wood? Kind of a subtle pattern so I put some oil on it to make it stand out. The pattern is not real obvious at some angles and shows better at others. Thanks

[Bruce Page]

Looks like lacewood to me.

Too pretty for a dust hood.

[doug faist]

Michael - I just finished up several Shaker Oval boxes using quarter sawn cherry and they look identical to your first picture. In my experience this is a typical and sought after look for cherry.

I'd have to agree, though, that it's WAY too pretty for shop fixtures.

Have fun with your project.

Doug

[Tom Esh]

That's "curl" - where the grain changes direction slightly. Curly is rarer and more pricy in many woods like cherry and maple, but the common grades often exhibit at least a hint of it. How much curl qualifies as curly can vary widely. The changes under different lighting angles is known as "chatoyance" - an optical effect caused by the fiberous nature of the material. (Silk does it too.)

[John Daugherty]

I agree with Doug, I think it's quarter sawn.

[Michael Weber]

I knew about quartersawn oak and have used it. But did not know that cherry exhibited a like quality when quartersawn. Does all cherry do that? I don't recall ever seeing cherry listed as quartersawn.

[Bob Vavricka]

Michael, to answer you original question, no, that is not a typical grain pattern at least for plain sawn cherrry of which I have used quite a bit. I agree that it looks like a quartersawn pattern. Can you show us some endgrain of some of the thicker pieces or look at the end grain and see how the annual rings are running. This would help determine if it was quartersawn.
Bob V.

[Steve Bagi]

Definitely quartersawn ray fleck.

[dan sherman]

looks like quartersawn to me as well.

[Peter Quinn]

That is perfect quarter sawn grain and it is pretty typical of perfect quarter sawn cherry, and a number of other species like maple, birch, spruce and a few others. I rarely see pieces of perfect quarter sawn cherry of any width, so that is rather special. I have seen that pattern on the edge grain of many flat sawn cherry boards, which would be a perfect quarter sawn perspective. I'd probably go buy some junk to make fixtures with and save the cherry for a 'higher' purpose, but I'm stingy that way.

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I agree with the others it is quartersawn, but honestly it doesn't look that much like cherry to me. The color is too deep...

[Alex Shanku]

The color is too deep...


Put some cherry in the sun for a few hours and it looks just like that, imo.

[doug faist]

Michael - Just FYI, here's couple pics of a Shaker box made from quarter sawn Cherry with three very thin coats of tung oil and some wax.

Your pieces would make a beautiful project of some sort.

Doug

[Sean Nagle]

+1 quartersawn.

[Michael Weber]

Beautiful box Doug and your grain looks just like what I have here. The wood is definitely cherry. I went and looked at the end grain of the 3x3 post and seems the edge I trimmed this off of is quartersawn but the grain quickly turns so the other edge would have been flat sawn. The board was badly split and in fact I had to glue one long split together in order to get two usable 4 foot boards to laminate. Really gnarly looking and that's why I used it, thinking it was otherwise useless. Live and learn. Mystery solved. Thanks everyone.

[Phil Thien]

Man, that is gonna be one nice dust hood. :D

[Michael Weber]

Man, that is gonna be one nice dust hood. :D

Nah. Nothing I make is nice looking:o The hood is make from plastic and is a take off of the one that was in Shop Notes a couple years ago. Except for a very small part of the hood itself the cherry is used for a support post. The post is attached to the right edge of the right extension/router table and holds a metal tube that holds the hood in position over the blade.