I have had great results from having sycamore and sassafras logs quarter sawn and dried in my shop. Has anyone heard of or seen quarter sawn cherry? I have three free logs I’m going to pick up next week and am trying to decide how to saw it. If you were looking to buy rough sawn cherry, how would you want it sawn? I’m going to sell one of the three logs. Thanks for any response.
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Replies
I have rarely seen cherry quartersawn, almost always flat sawn, if your having logs cut you could have it done that way. You might get a piece of cherry and cut it to see what it looks like quarter sawn before you cut your logs. Either way let us know what you do and post pictures.
Troy
Quarter Sawn Cherry
I have on hand and purchased quarter sawn cherry. There is a sawer and mill just north of Lansing Michigan that specializes in quarter sawn wood. It is pretty stuff. You may want to quarter some of it to see.
quarter sawn cherry
Some of the lumber from almost every plain sawn log ends up as quarter sawn. Just look thru the rack at any hardwood supplier. They cut one side of the log untill they hit too many flaws and roll it 90 degrees and cut some more. Specifically quarter sawn is cut to maximize the quartersawn grain and actually yeilds less lumber from the log due to waste.
Quarter sawn curly cherry
I built my king size bed out of quarter sawn curly cherry and it is beautiful. The slats in the headboard catch the light in the morning when I wake up and I look down the line at the rays shimmering in the sun.
King Bed
Oooh
I like your work ! Any chance of a photo ?
Probably in the Gallery and I missed it.
PS: also wondering what QS cherry looks like. Feels like I am learning something again.
pix of bed
I'm at the wrong computer to get pix directly but here are two I posted here a while back. I guess you can go directly there by clicking this post number. Anyway it was a post about bed hardware. (post #169806, reply #3 of 3)
I got it. Thanks !
post #169806
I put it in the search and badabingo !
Building the bed
I built this a long time ago. I cut the slats and numbered them as they came off the board just like flitch numbering off a log. They went into the headboard and the footboard in order except for one or two that seemed to work better upsidedown or backwards or out of order. The head of the bed faces east, I sleep on the left side and there is a window on the right side. When the morning sun comes in I lie on my left side and look right down the line of slats. Shimmering rays extend in long wavey lines from me to the far end of the headboard. The finish was Tried & True Varnish for five coats and then Tried & True Beeswax for the last coat. The coats were done with the bed outside on the south facing deck and took a lot of rubbing, but being in the direct sun sure darkened the cherry fast.
Huge Help
>look right down the line of slats. Shimmering rays extend in long wavey lines from me to the far end of the headboard. <
You sure know how to live.
>coats were done with the bed outside on the south facing . . . direct sun sure darkened the cherry fast.<
Wow . . . I never realized the darkening could move along that fast.
That is a huge help for when I make my little tables.
Thanks ! Sounds like I won't be using Maloof finish for them.
Now the down side.
After all that matching and flitchin and bitchin guess what happens ? She Who Must Be Obeyed adds a comforter. pillows for sleep, pillows for looks, shams (whatever they are) and small throw pillow across the whole thing. You get to see the top of the headboard cap, I'll give her that at least, she didn't cover that or reach the ceiling with pillows, yet.
When I get a chance tomorrow I'll find the pictures on the other computer and post them. The ones I posted were shot last year when we were painting the bedroom. All the construction shots were on film and would have to be scanned. The plans for the bed came from Woodsmith Magazine, but the plans were for Queen and I had to redraw them for King size. I got scared I would get it wrong and went and bought the mattress and box springs first to measure it right.
.
Have a great time with your son
For when you get a chance to come back :
I have had very serviceable results taking pictures of my old photo graphs (from film) using my digital camera and then posting them here without scanning them. I don't have a scanner.
I just laid out the photos in a block and snapped then can crop from there. With my old iPhone camera not worth doing one at a time because I can't get that close and stay in focus.
bonne nuit
pix
.
your work
That's really nice, clean work, Swenson. Did you make your own pattern. Looks sort of like Stickley. Very nice.
Did you make your own pattern. (?)
See reply #8. The plans came from WoodSmith Magazine, published by August Home. I had to redraw them because they were for a queen size bed, and I wanted it king sized. I kept the spacing the same but added more slats if I remember. There is a Stickley look to it. The magazine had a lot of good ideas for this project. Instead of cutting many many mortises in the curved rails of the headboard and footboard the rails were made of two boards clamped side by side and routed with slots for the slats. Then they were closed up like a book with glue between and when dry the slats were tapped thru the created mortises.
N/A
Nice
Simple slats but the figure in the wood paints a vast space that is fascinating to the eye. Extraordinary.
Thanks.
The structure framing the slats is flat sawn right ?
Yes
Only the slats were cut from quarter sawn boards.
N/A
Quarter Sawn Cherry
Thanks to you folks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it. Actually, I know how quartersawing is done and I have a sawyer. I just wanted to know if anyone had cut or used cherry which has been quarter sawn. Thanks, Swenson.
My biggest hope is that the quartersawing will take away some of the tendancy of cherry to blotch when finished.
Has anyone ever just oiled and then shellacked/varnished/lacquered over the oil? I have recently used cherry in cutting boards, which I only oiled with Boos. The boards are all end grain and the grain really pops with just the oil. It gives the old cherry's deep color immediately.
Comments are welcome.
BTW, starting a personal conversation within a thread sort of dilutes the thread. Just my opinion.
Hey the OP made more than one post. A rare thing.
Sorry.
You are lucky we stayed on the subject of quarter sawn cherry. Often we go off on bicycles and grand children.
"You aren't from around here are ya stranger ?"
: }
You are just going to hate this thread then
http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworking-knots/hand-tools/jointer-plane-question-lie-nielsen
over six thousand posts
very diluted
a good year for posts though
it had a memorable after taste
oak on the back of the tung
with just a hint of cherry
Some times . . . more often than you might think . . . you might even learn something during all the "useless" banter.
Other wise we sit around being all too polite and looking at each other and twiddling our thumbs waiting form some one to say something.
If this chat room gets any more condensed and consolidated and focused and on topic. The sound of crickets may be the only sound you will hear.
So . . .
Tell us something about quarter sawn cherry.
Post us some photos ( even if it is of your grand children asking you why the heck you would ever want to saw a cherry with a quarter ).
quarter-sawn Cherry
I have never understood how one could get a quarter to cut that deeply into a log. Hence, I have avoided bringing up the topic with my bicycle-riding grandson. But, the fact that I don't actually have a grandson may be a contributing factor, as well. ;-)
AaaOh
>bicycle-riding etherial grandson<
Oh Ralph . . . don't slip over that edge now.
Stay with me now buddy.
It is cherry blossom time right now so we don't have to worry about all that other stuff for a while yet.
Just breath . . . just breath . . . just breath
O.P. (bannerpond) :
See how easy it is for us to get off topic? To get seriously delutin'.
Don't leave us un supervised and hanging around staring at each other for long.
Post us sumpin' . . . even a photo of your shop dog dreaming about the arrival of the new cherry wood inventory.
well I see
that the village idiot is still at it
ron
Quarter Sawn Cherry
I had the crazy idea that this was for passing info, not pretending to have a life. Goodbye.
the Idiot
it seems doesn't like one time posters so he tries to discourage them from coming back a second time
just ignore him
ron
A True Story
Once I, myself, was a one poster. It made a longtime member very mad. He posted a long reply that didn't have much to do with my problem. This is a fact because I didn't actually have a problem. I just had an observation. He assumed I knew nothing about the subject at hand. When I didn't acknowledge him he sat and steamed. He waited some more. Then he couldn't stand it . He wrote a nasty note. He didn't post the note. He sent it to the OP in the OP's FWW In Box. The OP tried to be nice about it to no avail. I'm trying to remember the name he used... let me see...oh, I remember, his Knots Name was... Sid Works. Now this Sid Works guy is a very talented turner, from the looks of his website, and I'm sure it is not the same, bitter, sullen guy who wrote to me. Just a heads up.
no one was mad
I just asked a question and you replied. matter of fact here is the question and answer . i think that you are full of b/s
Participants: swenson and sid works
sid works
01/24/2012 - 00:54
it didn't warrant a reply I take it.
ron
Delete message
swenson
01/24/2012 - 10:01
Ron,
Yes it did but I wanted to keep it here rather than on the open forum and I wanted to take time to get it right and not insult you. I don't think you understood my post. Asking me just when my catches started made me believe that you thought I was having problems with the skew catching the work. That is not the case. I am not a spindle turner. Every once in a while I cooper together a birdhouse for a family member and turn a finial in the shape of an onion dome for the top. I knock it out with only a parting tool and a skew, running the skew down and in to quickly form the pointed dome. A while back i noticed how nasty the hollow grind on the skew was and wondered if it would work better with a nice flat surface. The hollow grind looked like a quick and dirty sharpening I must have done in a hurry years ago. With the new edge I was amazed at the polished surface I got on the next dome I turned. It looked burnished. Since these finials go outside in the weather they are painted so the surface doesn't matter much, but I knew that the new edge made quite a difference and thought I would comment on it.
I am not new to turning. Many years ago I spent a week with David Ellsworth and started turning hollow forms for fun, never even coming close to the quality I see on your site (thanks for the link) or anywhere near the huge forms David got upwards of twenty thousand dollars for. I mostly do furniture now that I am retired.
You were very thoughtful in typing out all the advice you gave me and I thank you for that. I know there is nothing worse than going to all that trouble and hearing nothing back. I've been away in Williamsburg and just saw your note.
Take care, and thanks again.
Swenson
ron
bannerpond
I'm not pretending to have a life. For seventy two years I have had a ball and it's not over yet. I thought the pictures might help. Sorry you have been driven away. Knots used to be more for passing info but one by one the posters dropped off over the years, same thing on other sites like The Burl I hear. Late at night some of us kinda get together and pass on what little info we have to share. Good luck with the cherry. I did use oil and varnish oil and combo oil / stain and oil / artists oil combos and very thin thinner / oil to stop blotch and lots of other tricks during 25 years of working with cherry, but there are a lot of guys on the finishing forum that have forgotten more about finishing than I ever knew and they sometimes post answers here.
I take it you are in the business, I am not. Just having fun.
Take care, be safe.
Humbug to You To Grumpy
No idiots here that I have seen. Just craftsmen/craftswomen. Some are more relaxed than others. Some have a sense of humor. Some don't. Much.
Some just comment on others posts and don't much have anything to say about . . . well in this case quarter sawn cherry.
Chat means chat. = informal conversation = shortening of chatter
Seriously accurate and concise data and information with no extraneous noise or interruptions may be best found in the various libraries. Since I already went there and paid my dues and now come here and share it even to the extent of giving links to titles and page numbers . . . or magazines / page numbers
well it just seems silly to type all the text over again when they could do a little serious study of their own.
I wonder if there is a brain surgery "Chat Room " where people who don't care to do the study thing get together ? Hey guys . . . I got the top off now what do I do ?
You know . . . like that.
In this case I was learning . And waiting. And keeping the chat going until someone , Bones in this case, showed up with more QS cherry info.
Love QS cherry
Hey sorry to be a late arrival to the thread, but I love cherry. Back before I relo'd to PA I lived in IL just east of St. Louis and there was a guy there that's all he dealt with was QS stuff. I bought most of my cherry from him flitches and QS and FS stuff. He gave me a great education. He was a retired Boeing machinist that did it full time. He'd gather logs all year and hire a guy with a nice band mill to come in and cut them up. Air dried them for a year then in the kiln. He showed me the difference and when you experience it, you will understand why the QS stuff is more expensive. Your waste factor is pretty good because of the way you have to rotate the cant to get the QS. Then you also have to remember the center is pretty worthless so it's scrapped. Depending on the size of the log rough generally 6" square or more. I cannot stress this enough a good sawyer is critical. If they don't know what they are doing the lumber will be worthless. Something else I learned and was true. Cutting a log is like christmas. Ya never know what its going to be like till you open it. I saw logs that as soon as it's opened you knew that one was QS and some you opened and it started QS and finished flat. The sweetest cuts will be closest to the ground as well. Now as to blotching. For those of us that love cherry its blushing not blotching :) I like to acentuate it in certan places and control it in others. You will get nice ray flec some times with cherry sometimes and I absolutly love curly cherry. If you really want to stop it, then I would reccomend Charles Neil's blotch control works well. Finally I'll give you one more tip. If you want to avoid the waste in cherry associated with that uneven white strips in cherry, if you leave the log (seal the ends) for up to a year or till the bark starts to come with relative ease, you will even out the color in the log and minimize the waste. He was retired so he could waite. Comercial outfits would never to that so they cout that in the waste. Anyway if your logs are big the QS is the nicer cut (maybe) but unless those logs get up pretty big go flatsawn and you will have the QS at each edge on the wider boards. Good luck.
noe are you telling me
that I turn your stomach?
ron
Bowls, bowls, bowls. Damn spellcheck with its basic no definition homonym feature. Damn Sigmund Freud and his slip. This is not the first time I made this mistake. I love to look at your bowls. I collect bowls. I turn bowls and even bleach some. The other would give me nightmares. Sorry.
no problem
just checking. one never knows when someone tries throwing in a little innuendo.
what do you collect in the way of bowls?
ron
collection
Salt fired
Wood fired
Indian black dung fired
Turned
Horsehair
More collection
more collection
I don't visit Knots much any more because there can be so much personal chatter in threads.
QS Cherry
Thanks for the post, Bones. Yours is what I was looking for. I have found a sawyer just a couple of miles from me who has a portable 28" Wood Mizer. Between the two of us, we quarter sawed a poplar log for practice and then a big sassafras log. I stickered the sassafras and put it in my basement for the winter. The QS sassafras dried straight and true, just like I hoped. So did the poplar. I will use the poplar for a prototype gateleg table and then the sassafras for the real project. The wife wants a gateleg table to augment dining table spaces for family events.
Recently I traded some work for three cherry logs. I decided to sell one log to pay for the trouble of hauling and cutting the other two. I will flat saw one log and QS the third. Since I already have about 100 BF of cherry cut off my place, I'm going to be set.
The flat sawn cherry I have used in the last couple of years has blotched so bad that I was looking for QS to solve that. The cherry cutting boards I've made and oiled have given instant beauty with the Boos Mystery oil finish, so I'm going with that.
Tommy McDonald ("Rough Cut Mac") on PBS said he just uses boiled linseed with shellac over that. I'll try that and see if I can avoid the blotching. I have some pre-finish but it didn't stop the blotching on the cherry like I hoped.
Thanks again for taking the time to answer.
Bannerpond
Glad it helped
Glad it was of some use. Those wood misers are nice that's what my guy used. it was sweet. The guy just stood back at the controls. It was amazing that the board come out perfectly even. Something else amazed me, how dang heavy a wet board is fresh off a cant. We were the manual labor and he drove the tractor to dump the logs off at the hydrolic lift and wattching the system roll that log level it then start cutting it. We'd stack and sticker till a rick was full and he'd come by pick it up and move it to a place on his property we'd just cover it with tin and block (off the ground on 4x6's) and put a metal tak with the date. He had stacks everywehre it was cool. He had a small shed with a nyle 200 kiln and a small inventory of wood he rotated out. Anyway I'm going to send you a link to a dvd set I really reccomend if you wory about cherry and controlling blotch and the color. It's worth its weight in gold and the guy runs sales all the time (like 50 percent off and such) Its not cheap but it covers all the major woods and you will learn a lot. Again I'll send that via a pm. Take care.
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