Any idea what cause these spots on cored Cherry bowls

[Bob Coates]

Cored these bowls from each half of cherry log and wonder what the spots were. Shows on both large and smaller bowl on both halves.
Ideas??
.CherrySpottedCored.jpgCoredCherryVoid.jpg

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I don't know if it's correct or not but I've been told there pitch pockets.

[robert baccus]

Charge extra for these "character" marks.

[Karl Loeblein]

Bob, What was the turning and finishing process? Were these spots visible after the initiial turning, or only after a finish got applied?

[Reed Gray]

I have seen 'pitch pockets' in cherry which are actual voids, and 'color spots' which are more like mineral colorings, but don't really know what causes them. I got a myrtle log last summer that had 'tiger stripe' figure in it which are a bunch of black stripes. No idea what causes it. Some logs have it, and some don't.... Most don't.

robo hippy

[Bob Coates]

Karl, As soon as they were turned. Just more pronounced after finished with tride and true.

[Bob Bouis]

Could also be the beginnings of decay, old injury from bird pecks, or maybe even ambrosia beetle staining (which you sometimes, though rarely see in cherry). Or a combination of those and the others previously mentioned.

My best guess from the pictures (which are kind of small and hard to see) is that at least some of them are incipient decay, the sort of thing that would eventually lead to the tree's center rotting out. Cherry is prone to this for some reason even though the wood is generally pretty rot resistant.