Question about cherry quality

[Alex Berkovsky]

Folks,
I purchased some cherry online for my drawer fronts and need your opinion if it's going to show the sapwood once milled. The false drawer fronts are going to have a raised panel look to them like the one pictured below.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/th_MMorgancherry1.jpg (http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/MMorgancherry1.jpg)

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/th_Raisedpaneldrawerfront.jpg (http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/Raisedpaneldrawerfront.jpg)

[Jim Becker]

Cherry and walnut are often sold with the sap not considered a "defect". If you don't want the look of the sapwood peeking out, you'll need to build your drawer fronts accordingly. A profile like you show doesn't let you hide the sap as well when it's partially though the boards.

[Mark Patoka]

From the picture, it looks like the sapwood is only on the front edge of the board and you can definitely distinguish the sapwood. As long as you cut that part out and orient your drawer fronts properly I don't think you'll have any problems.

If the backside of the boards had sapwood across most of the face, which it looks like yours don't, then you probably would have some showing through.

A lot of the cherry I buy has the sapwood on the edge like that and I just cut it off if I don't want it to show on what I'm making.

[Alex Berkovsky]

From the picture, it looks like the sapwood is only on the front edge of the board and you can definitely distinguish the sapwood. As long as you cut that part out and orient your drawer fronts properly I don't think you'll have any problems.

If the backside of the boards had sapwood across most of the face, which it looks like yours don't, then you probably would have some showing through.

A lot of the cherry I buy has the sapwood on the edge like that and I just cut it off if I don't want it to show on what I'm making.One face of the board is mostly heartwood, but only about 1/4" deep. Once I start raising the panel, I think the sapwood will show through.

[Irvin Cooper]

I have had the same issue with cherry on a piece for a customer that didnt want sap wood included (I personally like the effect of some sapwood included. It differentiates my stuff from what you find in the furniture store). My experiences are that there are no effective ways of hiding it, and even milling off a certain percent of the board will usually not eliminate it.

Just my .02 worth, which is an inflated price....

Irv

[Jason Beam]

I echo everyone else ... I made my end tables out of cherry and went through great pains to orient all the sapwood into hidden surfaces. Stock selection is going to be your biggest priority. If you're gluing up panels or anything else with that cherry, you can get away with facing the worst sapwood inside those panels.

Generally, I go through several rounds of stock selection. When buying the lumber, I have an idea of how much "show" surface I'm going to need and select boards accordingly - with a decent margin, say 15-20% over just in case. If I'm not able to select the boards myself, I try to pick up more than enough, to increase my odds of decent selections.

Then, as soon as I get my lumber, I decide the most critical show surfaces and find the best chunks of boards for those pieces. Drawer fronts are usually handy because they're shorter pieces and you can pick and choose from the centers of boards. Don't always expect the perfect piece to be hidden in a board such that it lines up parallel with the board's edge - you may have to slice out a diagonal if you have enough to spare.

The next round of selection I go through is usually for glue ups - i try to get the color to match with as little sapwood showing as possbile. I don't try to get 100% heartwood, but i strive for it.

The rest is for rails, frame pieces, dividers, edging, moulding, etc...

It can be a pain sometimes ... My fingers are crossed that you'll have enough acceptable stock for two more drawer fronts than you need. :)