What do you think of this idea?

[Mike Hess]

I recently picked up some cherry lumber for about $1.00/bf. It's 7/8" thick, 4-6" wide, planed smooth on both sides, about 90% clear, and kiln dried. The reason it was so cheap is that there's a ton of sapwood. Most of it has one red face, but the other is mostly white, so I suppose it could be used for casework. For the price, I could use it to build jigs, sacrificial fences, and whatnot, but I thought I might try something different:

I'm thinking of gluing some boards up into, say 9" x 9" x 3" chunks for bowl turning. Instead of trying to hide the sapwood, I'd let the sap/heart wood interfaces swirl through the finished piece and become a bit of a design element.

My concern is, will this be stable on the lathe, and will the finished piece be stable over the years?

[Dewey Torres]

Mike,
This seems like an idea best suited for the Turners forum. You should PM one of the mods to see about getting it moved.:)

[Mike Hess]

Mike,
This seems like an idea best suited for the Turners forum. You should PM one of the mods to see about getting it moved.:)

Thanks Dewey - I considered that, but thought that maybe some folks here could comment on the stability issue. If I don't get any takers, I'll see if I can have it moved.

I guess my quesiton just boils down to this: Is sapwood (or the interface between that and the heartwood) less strong, structurally than the heartwood in cherry?

[David DeCristoforo]

For the most part, cherry sapwood is just as stable as the heart. In fact, except for the color, there is little difference. One thing that is different is that the sapwood does not have the same sensitivity to UV so it will remain very light in color while the heartwood gets darker and darker over time.

[Mike Hess]

For the most part, cherry sapwood is just as stable as the heart. In fact, except for the color, there is little difference. One thing that is different is that the sapwood does not have the same sensitivity to UV so it will remain very light in color while the heartwood gets darker and darker over time.


Thanks David. For this particular piece, that may not be a bad thing. Since I'll be featuring the light/dark contrast, it may just improve with age.

[Chris Padilla]

Glue away and have some fun, Mike! :)

[Jim Becker]

I'd use it for casework and secondary stock. Cherry is just plain wonderful to work with and for a buck a foot, yowsa!

[Mike Hess]

Well, I glued up two turning blanks last night. I jointed them flat and stacked them so that, looking from the top of the blank, you see the edge of the boards. I arranged them so that there should be alternating, roughly parallel lines of sap/heart/sap/heart. Hopefully the finished piece will have kind of a wavy zebra stripe effect. I made one 6x6x2 and one 9x9x3.

Should be interesting - I've never turned a bowl before. I'm thinking the smaller one will work well on my dresser as a place to throw my keys and loose change at the end of the day.

[Mike Hess]

I'd use it for casework and secondary stock. Cherry is just plain wonderful to work with and for a buck a foot, yowsa!

I am planning to do that with the nicer stock - my bowl project is to use up some of the stock in which neither face is all red, but has significant amounts of both heart and sap showing on both faces.