Wild Black Cherry

[Bryan Somers]

Has anyone done any projects with wild black cherry? I have an upcoming project, a cradel for my daughter and a mom to be and thought I would do it out of cherry with walnut or maple rockers. I do know where ther is 50 bf of wild black cherry in a kiln now for $3.40/bf that still has not been spoken for. Quite a bit less than the area hardwood suppliers want for cherry.

Is it close in color and grain to cherry, and anyone have any pics of anything they've done with WBC?

I have a hard time deciding to commit to buying something that I cant place my hands on first even though none of the area woodworkers have complained the least bit about this sawer, he's a top notch guy.

[Andrew Williams]

Wild Black Cherry is known as Prunus Serotina, and has many common names, including Cabinet Cherry. It should be the stuff you expect to see when you see cherry woodworking.

[Chuck Jones]

I agree with the previous post. Go for it. I have sawed a lot of "Cherry" and it all looks the same to me (allowing for growth conditions, size, and other obvious things). I haven't done much textbook research on it and don't want to imply that I have, but the local folks around here call it wild cherry, black cherry, cherry and whatever and I think it's all the same. I used to think all cherry lumber came from the kind we pick cherries from in the yard. I have yet to saw one of those. I guess if you think of it they never grow so that they would make a decent log.

There is one bad thing I have learned about the cherry around here. It is subject to "Wind Shake". I've sawed a few beautiful logs 18-24 inches diameter that produced virtually no usable lumber. When you drop a board it splinters into multiple pieces. It's pretty obvious after it's sawed. Just watch for small cracks along the growth rings.

[Jim Becker]

Aside from advise given, you'll mostly want to insure that the stock you choose to use matches in color and grain throughout your project. No different than normal, but it could be a factor if you have to mix this particular batch of cherry with something you already have or source elsewhere.