Shaker-style bedside table with two types of cherry (American Black Cherry and Oregon Cherry)
Cherry, specifically American Black Cherry, is one of my favorite woods for furniture. But it doesn't grow on the west coast. Finding "deals" or green roughsawn stock seems impossible, at least at a reasonable price. So I've been mixing and matching short offcuts of Black Cherry from a local door plant with a native cherry found in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.
Last year I bought a pallet (nearly 500 pieces) of 5/4" x 4" x 18" Black Cherry offcuts because "it was a really good deal." And it was. But, of course, ever since I've been searching for ways to actually use them as they sleep under my offcut table, and my chopsaw station, and ....
Fast forward six months. I was having a raft (is that a technical term?) of western cedar custom milled for an arbor project when I spotted what looked like a cherry log on the lot. "Oh yeah, that's native wild cherry, I've got to get that out of here." So I bought it because "it was a really good deal," and he milled it into 2" slabs for me (I was already thinking "table legs"). Into my solar kiln it went for a slow dry. And then twisted. And split. But actually not too bad. Most of it came out as nice usable stock.
Oregon Cherry, also called Bitter Cherry (Prunus Emerginata), isn't used much for anything except firewood, if that. But while the wood is a bit more blond and with more streaks and blotches than Black Cherry, it's actually fairly similar, mills the same, and is dimensionally stable when fully dry. It also darkens over time when exposed to light and takes on deeper, richer tones - just like its cousin black cherry. I've resawn some stock that is indistinguishable from black cherry.
On my table, the legs and top are Oregon Cherry while the aprons and drawer are made from my short offcuts of American Black Cherry. All construction is mortise and tenon. All surfaces are handplaned, which in my mind, is superior to sanding in both look and feel. Finish is hand-rubbed hardwax oil, my go-to finish for furniture.
The solid wood drawer with handcut dovetails, as well as the table aprons, are American Black Cherry.
The top and legs are Oregon Cherry.
Oregon Cherry top with shop-made Black Walnut and Big Leaf Maple inlay, all from locally sourced wood.
Recently I attended the annual woodworker's show in Port Townsend, WA which is always excellent and with names you might recognize from the pages of Fine Woodworking and elsewhere. I spotted what looked like Oregon Cherry on a coffee table top. Sure enough. The woodworker said he liked working with it, and especially locally-sourced wood. Exactly.
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