Wild Cherry

[Dave Novak]

Pardon the obviously newbie questions. A buddy of mine was clearing some timber, much of which was wild cherry trees. Is wild cherry as good as the cherry found in hardwood stores? Also, I grabbed a few crotches hoping to get some nicely figured resaws out of it, but I don't have a clue as to how to season them corretly. I've heard some of you mention "stickering" it, what's that? Finally, how many months/years will I have to wait before I can saw it up? Thanks!

[Jon Lanier]

Horrible stuff to work with... you should send all pieces to me. ;)

[Greg Pavlov]

You may want to take a look at the attached for some diagrams:

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/forestry/g05550.htm

I assume that you want boards or veneer. Basically, you need to
cut it up first, then dry it.

[Dave Novak]

Thanks! That link is exactly what I needed.

[Rob Will]

Dave,
This is going to draw some disagreement but IMHO, you need to saw the crotches into full width slabs (bark removed). Then you need to slow down the drying/shrinking process and make it more uniform. One way to accomplish this is to entirely coat each piece with something like Bailey's End Sealer. In fact, you need to coat the log ends ASAP after cutting the tree.

Some will say that sealing all sides of a board will prevent it from drying. While this is true to some extent, a thin coat of sealer will still breathe a bit and allow the slab to dry more uniformly.

If you don't slow them down, I say most pieces will bust right down the middle. Figured wood is especially bad about uneven drying because of the curly and often exposed end grain.

If you can figure out a way to line up all three center points of the particular crotch you are sawing, plan on taking out the center or "pith" all in one 3/4" board. Keep it if you want but I'll bet you will throw most of the pith away. The next two boards on each side of that pith board will be your candy.

As far as your cutting method, I would saw most of it into 1" thick boards that look like a "Y" or pair of pants. Stack them with dry, uniform thickness spacers or "stickers" to allow air circulation. Line up everthing vertically and put some sort of weight on top.

For small pieces, the wood turners have ways to dry wood with alcohol or even microwave ovens. Otherwise, use some end sealer - it works wonders.

Good luck,
Rob

[Jim Becker]

What I see in your pictures is black cherry...same stuff generally sold as cherry lumber. And you have some great turning stock there, too!

[Ken Shoemaker]

Dave,
Jon hit it on the head. NASTY STUFF!!! Just don't stick Jon with all of it. I can take some off your hands. As a public service of course...:D

[Jeff Raymond]

Very, very toxic stuff.

You are not allowed to even store it in your shop.

Send me a PM and I will dispose of it at no charge as another SMC member service.

No kiddin'

[Jack Camillo]

excellent wood. I had the very same come down in a hurricane 4 years ago. had it sliced to 5/4, put it on a rack near the ceiling of my finished basement with a fan (low speed) on it. It was ready to work in a year. Very nice to work with.

[Dave Novak]

Thanks for all the helpful input. Apparently this wood is pretty good. I mispoke when I called the guy I got it from my buddy, he's really an older guy my son used to work with at a rental store. He doesn't make much money, so I'd be reluctant to have giant sums of his wood disapear for nothing, but I bet he'd be thrilled to get some very nominal price, like a couple bucks per log. If anyone's interested, I'm sure he'd be willing to part with some, or maybe a lot if there was a little cash involved. He was very generous with me, and I just don't want to take advantage of him. He's got a butt-load of it already cut into 18-24" logs, and a lot more to cut down. All the nice straight stuff is neatly piled and he's burning away the real narly stuff that is probobly of the most value to us. Let me know if your interested enough and close enough to Springfield, IL to make the trip. After I talk to him I'll pass along his number and you can just work out the details with him.