I'm beginning my most ambitious project to date, dining chairs, and I'm currently in the process of initial jointing/planing to establish my boards. I'm using 8/4 rough cut cherry to get to 1 1/2 inch boards. I got a great price on a number of "off-cut" 8 foot boards, and I'm encountering something I've never seen in my short woodworking career. I'd like some help understanding what it is.
In the picture the left piece is what I consider to be "normal" cherry and the right is the "darker/less dense" cherry. The picture messes with the color a bit, the left board has a the light red hue I expect, while in person the right board is closer to reddish brown.
Both of these pieces are from the same 8 foot board. 2/3 of it cuts and planes like standard cherry, the latter 1/3 or so is this darker appearance. When cross cutting instead of a nice smooth cut, the darker cherry has a rough porous appearance. These boards have all been kiln dried. Is the darker the cherry the beginnings of dry rot which was stopped in the kiln? I'm assuming it's unusable. Does anyone know what this is?
Cherry2.jpgcherry1.jpgCherry3.jpg