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BEAUTIFUL cherry cant... assuming 8ft log, foot wide boards, looks like around 50 bd ft of knot free, defect free premium grade stuff there. Maybe little less on the one or two boards from the very center of the tree. If it's dried right, then S2S on the jointer/planer, that much premium cherry would cost you over $300 retail here on the east coast. $200 even if you went to the sawmill and talked them into letting you have it right off the saw, which they probably wouldn't let you have unless it was you that brought the log in to them. Gold, growing right there in your back yard.
 
The cant pictured above is 8'6" and is the "top log" out of the 29' log pictured below. It did turn out some very high quality lumber, and both are now sawn up and air drying on stickers.. I'm going to build some cabinets and trim out of the lumber for my own use..

Rob

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My sawmill pictures http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4378744
 
Speak of the devil... I subscibe to several woodworking mags, and in the Jun/July 2006 issue of WOOD Magazine (Better Homes and Gardens mag) that just came to my door, there is a 6 page articale all about how difficult cherry can be to work with in the shop, and lots of tips and tricks to deal with that. :deadhorse:
 
Rob I'm curious what you do with your smaller dia pieces of a cherry tree like that. With Oak, soft make, stuff that's pretty plentiful and I have a lot of, anything smaller than say 10 inches or so gets sawn into firewood. I like cherry so much though, that I take the time to slice even a 6-8 inches dia. I saw them down the center, then into rough 3x5 pieces 3 or 4 foot long on my resaw bandsaw that I kinda use as a mini-sawmill. Often the lumber is not the greatest after it dries and sometimes twists up a bit, but I can usually get at least an 8/4 board 4-5 inches wide, enough for some of the small stuff I make in the shop. Again, I only take the time to do that with cherry or something pretty special I don't get to see much.
 
This won't be the answer you want to hear, but i don't have a market for the little stuff, so as you can see, it ends up on the firewood pile.... But, every once in a while (not often) someone may ask for a small chunk, and i just give it to them.

Anyone wanna buy some??? :D

Rob

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...no I understand completely. Even with cherry, there is a law of diminishing returns for me, and time is my most precious commodity at this point. As I said, I often turn 10-12 inch oak and other hardwoods into firewood because I have so much of it now that I can pick and choose, and only take something I can get a 12-14 inch wide board from after slabbing off the sapwood and bark. Cherry burns nice in a woodstove. Back when I was working for a pulpwood company as a logger and had a little business on the side selling firewood I had one customer who wanted only cherry. He liked the way it smelled in his fireplace.
 
I am so jealous!!

What beautiful wood. Makes me want to cut trees down for the wood instead of waiting for them to die. I do have another cherry that may or may not survive, so only time will tell. We have an older home, approx 90 or so years old, the cherries were about 50 or so, still bearing fruit, however it was pretty a cherry pit with skin! It kills me to cut these trees down, but paving the driveway is what I believe did them in. The pavers put down some type of pellets to kill vegetation in the gravel driveway. I asked if it would harm the trees and I was told no, it wouldn't. Maybe if the trees were younger or healthier, alas now I have to make lumber out of them.

Any thoughts of digging some of the large roots up and cutting them to size with a bandsaw? I was told roots will give a burled type wood, but I am very new to this stuff. Any thoughts? I won't use the chainsaw on roots due to dirt, but the bandsaw should be fine for small pieces. Is a half inch blade good enough? I think that is as big as my Delta bandsaw goes. Just curious.

Kind Regards,

Bryan
 
Baron11 said:
Any thoughts of digging some of the large roots up and cutting them to size with a bandsaw? I was told roots will give a burled type wood, but I am very new to this stuff. Any thoughts? I won't use the chainsaw on roots due to dirt, but the bandsaw should be fine for small pieces. Is a half inch blade good enough? I think that is as big as my Delta bandsaw goes. Just curious.

Kind Regards,

Bryan


Know any woodturners?
 
In the early 70's for whatever reason, black walnut prices went through the roof for a while there. I heard of a two huge walnut trees cut down in the middle of the night in a park in Ohio, quickly loaded onto a truck and stolen. Here in PA at the time, some loggers were pulling the stumps out with a skidder/dozer, to get the thick roots which made excellent gun stock wood. Never heard of anybody doing that to cherry though. Personally I'm not sure I would go that far even with cherry. Lot of work unless you are really going to be rewarded with something special and it's for yourself or friend. If you're doing that to sell it, gosh, how much is your time worth? Bandsaw blade will dull up quickly going through a dirty root just like chain. I'd take a high pressure washer to it first if you were going to go through all that trouble to get that root to your band saw. As for blade thickness, in the past I have resawn small logs (6 inch dia) on my 14" bandsaw with a half inch blade. It has to be something like a 3-6 tpi though or it will clog up with that wet wood real quick. Now I use a larger resaw band saw with a 1 inch blade. Be prepared to clean off the rubber tires on your bandsaw wheels afterwords also, as wet wood gums up them too. I get it off with a dull knife, like a table knife. I've also used a hard piece of wood, like osage orange with a sharp machined edge. For cleaning the residue and deposits off my blades, I carefully hold that knife against the side of the saw blade as its moving, being carefull not to get the knife up near the teeth of the blade. I KNOW... this is dangerous... if you don't know what you're doing you could lose a finger or two in a heartbeat. But its the fastest easiest way I know to clean my blades from caked on wet wood and gum deposits after cutting wet wood. I should probably put some kind of disclaimer here... FOLKS, Don't try this at home!!
 
Roots, Cherry

No I wouldn't be selling it. I can see a pretty large root right on top of the ground at least 6" in diameter. I just wanted to know if it was worth digging up. I was thinking the same thing about the pressure washer, I have one and will do so, if the root is worth it. I don't plan on digging the entire root ball up. I will get what I can, cut the stump short, then rent a stump grinder and be done with it.

Has anyone worked with thick diameter cherry roots before? Is this where the burled wood comes from or is burled wood something else?

Regards,

Bryan
 
Burled wood comes from burls which are growths on trees, like a tumor. Some suggest they grow in response to a wound.
 
Newfie said:
Burled wood comes from burls which are growths on trees, like a tumor. Some suggest they grow in response to a wound.
Some research also suggests that burls form in response to a biological attack to the tree. One thing is sure, some of the figure produced by a burl is just beautiful. Wild grain going every which way. Hard to dry without it cracking and deforming, and can be hard to work in the shop. I started working on a small piece of burl once, that although it looked solid, quickly broke up into small pieces when I started machining it.
 
Newfie said:
I have heard that as well, but not enough to feel qualified to comment.
well... never said I was qualified either:jester: I do remember a few tidbits from one of my dendro classes though. That was in late 70's, and at least back then they really weren't sure what caused burls. Not sure they are sure now. Did a quick google search just now, didn't come up with anything definitive. Maybe if I took the time to fine tune it. Oh well.
 

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