Working with Cherry harvested over 65 years ago

[Lee Schierer]

My wife wanted me to make a new picture frame for a photo we have. We looked at various frame profiles I've made before and different wood types. She selected some of the cherry that her father purchased when she was a little girl. I have no idea how long the cherry had been stored before he purchased it. After we were married and he found out I made furniture, he gave us the wood. I've made several pieces of furniture from it and at least one other picture frame. Here is a photo comparing this old cherry to wood that was milled just a couple of years ago. Note the deeper dark color of the board on the right.
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That is a piece of the 65+ year old cherry. Now some of you will say well cherry darkens with exposure to light and it does. SO here is a photo showing the same board that was on the right above ripped to size for the frame I was making. Note that the dark color is just slightly lighter than the face and still much darker than the new cherry board in the previous photo.
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One piece is the face grain and the other is the ripped edge.

I'll post a photo of the frame when it is finished.

[John C Bush]

Hi Lee,
I just finished a desk for my daughter using cherry stock that was stored/hidden/found under old hay, bat, raccoon and pigeon guano in the hay lot in our barn in Ill. It was placed there in 1966, moved to Seattle in 1999 and has been in my stack since then. Not sure when it was originally milled but likely well before '66. All of it was twisted, cupped, bowed-two slabs were ~2" x 16" 8', the rest was 2-4" x 8"+ 5'+. took a lot of milling, ripping and rejoining but the color and graining is wonderful. Don't have before pics but here are some completed desk pics. Finish is straight polyurethane.

[Nick Mazzino]

The desk is absolutely gorgeous!!

[Jerry Wright]

My experience is that the redness of cherry is dependent on where it has been harvested. Cherry from PA is much lighter than cherry from southern IN and IL. The dark cherry mills and cuts differently than the lighter materials. I am not an arborist, but there maybe several cousins in the cherry family tree.

No matter the reason, the dark and light cherry is always beautiful!!!

[Steve Demuth]

I have had the good fortune to come into some white oak that was originally milled and then stored outdoors decades ago. Significant surface weathering, but take that off and the good wood is as dark as a stiff ice tea when milled, with a rich satiny texture. Lovely stuff. Also roughly as hard as aircraft grade aluminum ;-)

[Ron Citerone]

My experience is that the redness of cherry is dependent on where it has been harvested. Cherry from PA is much lighter than cherry from southern IN and IL. The dark cherry mills and cuts differently than the lighter materials. I am not an arborist, but there maybe several cousins in the cherry family tree.

No matter the reason, the dark and light cherry is always beautiful!!!

A sawmill guy in VA told me if the trees are more than an arms length apart the color is different. He thought it was about the mineral content of the wood. I have used mostly PA cherry and I will say, some cherry I got from New York State was a lot heavier and had much more defined grain. Now that was mountain lumber and most of what I have had is from Southeast Pa where it is more lowland areas. Cherry from anywhere is gorgeous!

[Roger Marty]

Hi Lee,
I just finished a desk for my daughter using cherry stock that was stored/hidden/found under old hay, bat, raccoon and pigeon guano in the hay lot in our barn in Ill. It was placed there in 1966, moved to Seattle in 1999 and has been in my stack since then. Not sure when it was originally milled but likely well before '66. All of it was twisted, cupped, bowed-two slabs were ~2" x 16" 8', the rest was 2-4" x 8"+ 5'+. took a lot of milling, ripping and rejoining but the color and graining is wonderful. Don't have before pics but here are some completed desk pics. Finish is straight polyurethane.

Wow. Just wow. I'd love to hear more about how you built this desk. That's one of the most impressive pieces I've seen.

[Mel Fulks]

Another fine desk. Like the grain and coloring ,your matches, and the unusual design. Don't like the brasses, could just be that dark colored accenting .

[David Utterback]

I have found that the color of cherry can vary along the length of a board. I was gluing up some chair seats and there is a noticeable difference in the tone of the wood along the joint line. The tree was native to Ohio. I also have a short piece that was claimed to have been locally harvested over 100 years ago and it is way darker than what I see today.

[Yonak Hawkins]

John, as others have said, this is a striking piece of furniture. Are the bottom drawers long enough to hold file folders put in sideways ?

[Thomas L Carpenter]

That is a fantastic piece. Please tell us how you did the knots in the drawers. I'm in the process of making a small box with really old SYP rescued from an old church and the top of the box has a large knot that needs to be filled or treated or something. Rather than try to hide it I thought I would highlight it but would welcome some ideas. The knot is actually a knot hole about an inch in diameter.

[John C Bush]

Thanks for the desk critiques. The wood was likely from E. central Ill farmland soil. The black(er) areas were moisture exposed as the surface was softer and the stain spread from there with limited effect on wood density. Overall the wood was very hard and brittle-lots of chipout doing the dovetails. The knot in the right lower drawer front had decayed out but I was able to match and epoxy a reasonable looking patch to mimic the left side drawer fronts. I wasn't sure of the hardware as well but was daughter's choice and they do look better in real life than in the pics. I copied the design from a FWW issue from the 80's and changed the dimensions to fit the stock on hand. I wasn't that excited with the design at first but it grew on me as I got-er-done. At least I finished it before she starts her thesis!!

[johnny means]

Cherry darkens. Light and air will hasten said darkening, but even the unexposed portions of the wood will darken given enough time.