Grade 4 cherry vs Plain Cherry

[jamesthomas]

 I have a .40 cal. "A" weight Colerain Early American barrel, that I'm thinking about making a Southern Mountain rifle from. I was gong to buy a grade 4 cherry stock from Dunlap  woods and have Pecatonica shape and inlet the barrel and drill the ram rod hole only. Pecatonica has only plain cherry. After I stain the stock will you be able to see the curl of the grade 4 from Dunlap Woods? I plan on using Easy Off Oven cleaner or a Lye solution for the stock.

[galamb]

James, I can't talk to how it would look/work on a rifle stock but I have done some cabinet work with Curly Cherry.

First off the curl is not as prolific as Maple or even Walnut - I found it spaced pretty far apart, with wider stripes and they had a habit of petering out mid way through a stripe (may have just been the limited supply that I worked with).

Second, it was horrible to work with - makes super curly maple seem "easy" - lot's of "blow outs" until I got used to working with it and even then the scrap rate ended up excessive compared to many other woods.

When finished it did look super attractive, but have never been in any rush to use it again, for anything.

[Kermit]

Some folks make mistakes by thinking cherry should be easier because it's softer. 'Tain't so. Two words: sharp tools. Figured cherry ups the ante.

[kaintuck]

I made a southern Mtn rifle with nice figured cherry last year. The plank had a wonderful curl in the butt area, and no soft spots...super hard thruout. Then I made a flintlock for a friend with the next plank, it had two soft spots, which I replaced with cherry insert, and covered with a brass plate.
Cherry will either make you cuss, or praise it when your done......

But, please...keep the lye and other weird stuff away....all you need IF you want, alch cherry stain, cherry will ALWAYS darken with time. I have my fathers cherry coffee table....56yr old and dark like walnut now......

Wish you well.......win or lose, cherry stock makers are a small minority!

[smallpatch]

I've built several figured cherry guns in the past. My experience is that it works easier than maple, with less distinct figure than maple. More of a rope like curl, but very nice.
I agree with kaintuck on the stain. Stay with alcohol based stains. Keep it light, it will darken with age.
You'll find Wayne has some really nice wood. Never been disappointed.

[Gene Carrell]

I have built one rifle using Wayne's cherry. I asked him for a dense, figured piece for carving, and that is exactly what I got. I could not have been more pleased as it shaped easy and carved just fine with sharp tools. Just ask for what you want. If I were going to use lye on my cherry, I would not pay too much extra for fancy or figured wood.

[jamesthomas]

 Gene, that's what I've heard because the Lye or Easy Off treatment turns the cherry very dark and kinda makes getting fancy cherry a mute point. I wanted to make a Isaac Haines out of it but nobody does a "A" weight Pre-carve they are all B or C weights plus I need it in left hand  . The only person I have left is Sitting Fox. I'm going to give him a call later. Going back to the cherry, I was also thinking about a good piece of walnut for it. The barrel may have to be turned into a Southern Mountain Rifle. I sure do like the profile, This is my first swamped barrel. I saw it for sale on here, and before I knew it my fingers had bought it for me!!! I have a NMLRA Territorial coming to Alabama in May and I plan on going, maybe Dunlapwoods will be there or Tip Curtis, its so hard to get in touch with him, plus I would like to see all the guns he has. He does a lot of shows so its tough to catch him at his shop. Sorry for the rambling but the coffee has hit me.

[Keb]

I'd go with the plain cherry. It's beautiful wood. I've made a few guns (10 or more) with cherry, none with any figure but some with mineral streaks. All my wood came from the same mountain top in PA. I've had the wood split with the grain for no reason, too. All that said, sharp tools are a must.
I can not see why kaintuck suggested keeping lye or Easy Off away from it. It just speeds up the age process.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

I've built only one rifle with curly cherry. I found it considerably more difficult to work than curly maple. The wood is much more easier to chip out, and the grain is far more unpredictable than maple. With that being said the results are stunning, work it slow. The grain is very obvious but as mentioned not the tight curl of maple. Here are some pictures of the finished rifle. It is based on Crockett's rifle but in .36 cal 42" Colraine B, it has a couple of personal tweeks that I added for me. You can see the extent of the curl on the overall shots, it's not as gaudy as maple, but there in an elegant way.  I got this blank at the CLA show in 2012 from the silent auction table for $130.

[Kermit]

Nice, Micah. A very little lighter than my Peter Berry. Did you treat the wood in any way or just let time and UV work on it?

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

I used LMF Walnut stain. It gives a little different color on the cherry.

[Meteorman]

nice, Micah.

below is plain cherry from Dunlap.
Ferric nitrate in alcohol, followed by an overwash of  diluted Transtint red mahogany.
currently working on another fowler with "plain" cherry from Dunlap - no problems working it - I like it a lot.
/mike millard

[Captchee]

 As the others have said the  figure in cherry can range for nothing to  phenomenal. But along with that figure also often comes changes in the grain . Thus sharp tools are a must  .
As per a discussion we had on cherry some time back . I think the figure one gets depends on the cherry the plank was cut from . I also think that how  well a lye treatment works , depends on that  as well .
As was said cherry will also darken with age .
 Here is a build I did some years ago  from a Bing  cherry plank . Lye didn’t give as dark and deep red as I wanted so I followed up with an alcohol based stain

[Robby]

This is from a local black cherry tree with some 'roping'. Cherry is very photo-reactive, no stain, or reagent, was used, about four months exposure to ambient light. Just keeps getting better and better.

Robby

[jamesthomas]

 Thanks guys, I think I'll get a grade 4 cherry stock plank from DunlapWoods and send it to Pecatonica with my barrel and have them cut a pre-carve Southern Mountain Rifle with just the barrel and ramrod hole drilled, that way I get to choose the lock be able to inlet properly. I'm thinking on a Late English for the lock. Flintlock of course. I'll just let nature and daylight take its time with the wood.

[Bill of the 45th]

James, I would consider Dave Keck at Knob Mountain, you will get a better inlet, and he has a couple of Southern profiles, and the breach will come square, and clean, instead of a router bit circular cut.

Bill

[smart dog]

Hi James,
I've used plain and figured cherry.  I had no problems working either but the figure in cherry is not worth the extra cost IMO.  It tends to be much more monochromatic compared to maple and is usually not very pronounced.  Of course there probably are exceptions but in my experience the figure is pretty flat.  Also, again IMO, don't immediately use lye.  Try some other stain options as well.  Cherry can have a wonderfully warm brown color with reddish hints.  Lye pushes the red over the top, which may be what you like but I would experiment with other options as well.

Good luck,

dave 

[Keb]

Lye pushes the red over the top, which may be what you like but I would experiment with other options as well.

I've found oven cleaner purchased from a "dollar store" is weaker (cheaper) than Easy Off. The cheap stuff turns the cherry I've been working with (all from same woods) a nice brownish red color. I accidentally touched up a spot with Easy Off and it was quite a deep red. I rubbed it for a while with 00 steel wool which softened the color and made the wood color just right for my liking.
I tried to capture the color here but it isn't like the real thing :/

Rubbing it with many coats of Linseed oil and steel wool when dry makes a big difference too. It doesn't happen over night.
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