Y’all did so well on my last question that I’ll try another one.
I am preparing to make a small table from cherry. Having seen the disaster in oak when the legs are cut, producing two sides of flat-sawn figure and two of quarter-sawn, I am wondering does cherry have enough grain to produce a similar problem?
I have seen articles on orienting my wood to produce flat-sawn on all four sides, but it takes a lot more (very expensive) wood. Is it worth it?
Thanks,
Dave
Replies
Same problem with cherry, but I personally don't find it as objectionable as with oak. Maybe it's the cathedral grain or the oak that just sticks out more, or the tighter pores and figure of cherry that make it look better.. I dunno. It IS noticable however, and depending on the look you're after, it may be worth your while to sacrifice a bit of wood to get a consistent figure all the way around.
If you build it he will come.
use rift sawn.
Arrange the grain so that the outside of the tree is located at the outside corner of the piece.
db,
Cherry's qtrsawn figure is more subdued than that of oak. I prefer to orient the grain of the legs to show similar patterns on each side of the table, rather than trying to have it match all way around. Just me.
Regards,
Ray Pine
Ray,
I agree with your taste, old chap.
I know it IS a matter of taste, but I find wood that's arranged to look "neat", rather than to look "natural", offends my eye. For instance, when I buy veneered blockboard or ply I never buy rotary-cut but always look for book-matched rift cut veneer, so that once the lipping is in place the veneered board looks like jointed planks.
I know what's meant about the oak, though - the contrast between the two cuts is stark. Cherry looks fine, but.
Another thought - why do people want to stain cherry to look darker when all they have to do is wait a few months? And why is the blotching in oiled cherry regarded as a fault? I know, it's all taste.
Lataxe
Lataxe,
I stain cherry darker because I, and my customers, are impatient, and used to immediate gratification. Plus our local cherry here in Virginia is pretty pale. Aniline dyes also enhance that awful blotchiness that others complain about. I call it "figure" and like it immensely.
First time I've ever been called "old chap"; I like that too.
Pip-pip, and cheerio, old bean,
Ray
Use rift sawn cherry. If your local dealers don't have any, use wide flat sawn boards where the edges have diagonal grain. Rip off the ends and use them, it's equivalent to rift sawn lumber. (I've gotten rift sawn 6/4 and 8/4 cherry from Hearne in Oxford, PA).
Rift sawn will have the same vertical grain in all four faces of the legs.
If you orient the grain diagonally from corner to corner on the blank you will end up with basically a quarter sawn face on each side. Unfortunately you may need to resaw the piece in order to achieve this arrangement of grain, so you may need pieces thicker than you normally would use in order to achieve this particular outcome.
Or you could arrange the grain to take advantage of each particular pattern as previously suggested.
J.P.
JP:You are with me on this. I want to orient the rings diagonally so that I get quarter-sawn on each face. Of course, it will probably mean buying a very large piece of 12/4 stock in order to be able to get four legs out of it. Ouch.Thanks for all the help, guys.I must be a great woodworker! I have still have 10 fingers.
When you go on your search for lumber take a block plane to clean up the ends of a board to see if it may have what you are looking for.It may take some time, but if you have a good enough sized stack of lumber to go through you may get lucky.J.P.http://www.jpkfinefurniture.com
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled