I’ve got a farmer in a near by town that had a couple of trees come down and asked if I wanted them. The trees are cherry and about 200 ft long. I will have them milled up but are there special cuts or features I should be looking for when having cherry milled. I’ve read about and seen quarter sawn oak, currly maple, etc. but never heard about types of features from cherry.
Edited 11/3/2009 9:09 am ET by bruce_in_paris
Replies
Black cherry is a beautiful wood. It can have many different qualities from tree to tree or even in different parts of the same tree. Curly cherry is particularly nice, but is somethign that the tree produced, and not the sawing.
If they were mine, I think I'd just have them sawed through and through - mostly 5/4 and 8/4. That way you get some of everything - flat sawn, quartersawn, etc.
Here is a raised panel door I made from cherry. The rails and stiles are quartersawn and the panel is curly:
View Image
Thanks, from what everyone said a good sawyer and see what I get. Thanks for the feedback.
bruce,
Another thing to consider, if you might possibly be making legs, for furniture that is. :-) Might want to have some of the center portion cut in, let's say 12/4 which should give you some 3" x 3" billets. Slightly further out toward the bark and you can get rift sawn lumber, also highly prized for leg stock.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
I love cherry! If you QS it will yield less wood than flat sawn but its totally your call . I learned a lot from an old timer when I lived in IL and helped him. He collected logs and once or twice a year would have a sawyer come on site and cut them up. He said logs were like xmas, ya just never know till you open it up what your going to get inside. He did prefer QS and mostly that was what he dealt with, but he would let the log dictate. Get a reputable sawyer to do the work, or you could wind up with a pile of firewood. Here's my last project with cherry.
I was married by a judge - I should have asked for a jury.
George Burns
Cherry is my wood of choice. It is (in this area) reasonably priced and it is nice to work with. It holds up well and it can be finished in either the darker Cherry look that a lot of folks expect when talking of cherry (more of a red mahagandy color) or the more natural finish. Either look nice (depending on personal preference) I have a lot of the darker red color for furniture in my house and I have used the natural color for wood work in the house (Kitchen and such).
How I cut the cherry would all depend on what I was doing with it. I happen to like the flat sawn look on the more natural color. This give a more active (for lack of the right word) look to the wood grain. The 1/4 sawn is IMHO better for the darker color where the grain is not as telling. And of course QS is more stable in things such as doors and such.
So it is a matter of how you plan on useing this wood and what you are planing on using it for. I would go with a good amount of QS and still get some flat but this is just me.
Doug M
I'd like to see some pics of those logs. I have only seen trees that high around here,South Jersey , a few times, and none were cherry.Most of our cherry is well under a hundred feet and less than 20" in diameter.I have sawn and milled short cherry logs.I sawed them thru and thru.No advantage that I can see to quarter saw or rift saw in cherry.
mike
I will get some pictures and post them. I was surprised when I saw them. That they both came down at the root at the same time along the fence line was another thing but it makes them easy to get to.Another thanks to all for the feedback. I'm getting a lot of good info.
Pictures of the trees if I can get them into this
Edited 11/5/2009 2:27 pm ET by bruce_in_paris
got the pictures in. I'm as good with computers as I am making big pieces of wood into little pieces of wood.
WOW! You're very lucky. Looks amazing.
I bet there are some amazing turning blanks in there too!
Can understand your feelings completely. I would be more than just cheery to get cherry logs 200' long.
The suggestion to get some 12/4 stock is one I really like, especially a bit out from the heart. Rift is what I like for legs, but sometimes in 8/4 the grain is not straight between the top and bottom faces; having the extra width would allow you to get at least 2" x 2" blanks with grain parrallel to all four surfaces. 10/4 would allow you to rip and bookmatch for say a sofa tabletop, if you have access to a bandsaw with sufficient rip capacity.
Just another thought.
Looking at the photos convinces me that you have a very nice log to work. I was wondering if you will use a horizontal bandsaw and cut the tree on site or if you have to buck it down and haul it to a wheel sawyer??
If you cut the stump off before you go to the wheel, consider having it cut up for all the natural crooks you would find in a stump like that. I'm a rifle maker and my mouth waters when I see a freshly fallen tree come up out of the ground with that many thick roots. That is a gold mine for curves.
You have to find a patient sawyer to take the log and quarter saw a "onesy" as you watch. My sawyer will only cut in plain saw fashion. I have him cut the boards near the pith in 8/4. This yields some nice quartered stuff if you need legs and straight grain stiles and rails down the road.
Cost is the big factor. For an on site band saw job, it may cost 1000.00 for a full day. Close to the root ball we get into some wide stock and there are limits on how wide a log a band saw mill can handle. A wheel sawyer is about an hours drive so adding transport to get it there plus the sawyers fee raises that cost. I also had another thought. The trees were on a fence line along a stream. When we get to the log near the the root ball you know there will be something, bits of fence or nails, in the trees. Thanks for the hint about crooks. I was thinking of table tops and such for the ones along the trunk. But turning blanks and gun stocks would be great from the root balls. Your input and that from others is a big help. Thanks for taking the time.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled