"Wild Cherry" as a stock wood ??

[Molly]

Just had a call from a friend who is having a large "wild cherry tree taken down.  Supposed to yield a trunk log of about 20 feet long and about 18 to 12 inches in diameter.

Anyone know if "wild cherry" would be a good wood for a stock blank?

[rich pierce]

If it is Prunus serotina then it is what cherry gunstocks are made of.

[oakridge]

I agree that's what gunstocks are made of. Around here it's called wild cherry or black cherry.

[Eric Krewson]

I cut up a similar cherry trunk a couple of years ago, lots of wood, lots of work but almost every piece had bark inclusions or rot inside. I didn't get any good blanks out of it, only a couple of marginal ones.

[Eric Krewson]

Like this;

[David R. Pennington]

I cut a couple wild cherry trees on my lot a few years ago and took a couple logs to a local mill and had them sawn. I built a couple rifles out of cherry. I like to work it.

[Bigmon]

Got seven big planks about dry right now.  From my own place and hoping to get some good wood from it.  At least enough for a couple.

[Elnathan]

Cut any stock blanks way long and seal well, immediately.

I've helped my folks cut down a couple cherry trees on their property over the years and tried to get some good pieces along the way, but virtually everything checked badly within a couple days of being cut. I got a spoon and a couple bowls, plus a big chunk of crotch-grain 3-5" thick that has split so badly in every direction that I can only use it for small projects. Very aggravating. It was very beautiful wood.

[vtmtnman]

I agree with cutting a lot longer than you need.I have Cherry,Maple and curly Birch slabs drying right now.Some have checked and twisted terrible.Seal up the ends good immediately after cutting.

[Fiftyfour]

I would say that for the most part checking on the face has to do with where in the log the board came from.  In regards to the end of a board
I usually expect to loose about 6 inches on each end due to checking.  The very center of a log will check terribly.

[Turtle]

 Well, I learned something. Black cherry is real common here in WNY and I burn a lot for firewood, but I never heard it called "wild cherry".

[Molly]

Sounds like trying to "capture" some usable wood from a lone tree like this is not a project of great interest for me.

I often encounter nice furniture labeled "Black Cherry" and have generally be able to identify "antique" furniture made of "cherry" but never assumed the two were the same.  Seems like speaking of the wood in today's world, it's "black cherry" but speaking of the "fruit", it's "wild cherry".

Have always known it as "wild cherry".  Squirrels love!

Thanks to all for the info.

[jaeren]

In my neck of the woods south west Pa. We call it choke cherry and wild cherry. Pretty wood and grows fairly fast. And I've cut plenty of it when younger for fire wood.

[rich pierce]

Choke cherry is a different deal, an early succession tree, dies when about 8” in diameter and useless as lumber.

[Eric Krewson]

If you coat your entire fresh cut stock blank with one coat of shellac and 3 coats on the ends it won't check. Put the blank in the shade, basement, ventilated out building and never in a hot attic or totally enclosed outbuilding without air flow.

Your blank will still dry out because no finish is impervious to moisture transfer. The shellac just slows the surface drying that lets checks start.

I treated the wood pictured above this way and didn't have the first check. This type of sealing is an old bow stave trick.

[J Henry]

  I have several wild Cherry trees that died 20 + years ago and were left standing,they dried on the stump.Good and hard to the touch, with no soft outer wood found with a ax,bark stripped off.What are the chances they are gun stock quality?Some would be 12-16" in Diameter.

[Jim Kibler]

The problem with cutting trees for stock blanks is that not all logs make good gunstocks.  For example, we only accept maybe half of the red maple we sort t just based on density alone.  Add in other characteristics and the amount of wood we accept is a pretty small percentage.  Certain species are better than others.  For example, sugar maple can be better, but good curl is more infrequent.  A good percentage of walnut isn't suitable for stock wood as is cherry.

Jim

[WadePatton]

The problem with cutting trees for stock blanks is that not all logs make good gunstocks.  For example, we only accept maybe half of the red maple we sort t just based on density alone.  Add in other characteristics and the amount of wood we accept is a pretty small percentage.  Certain species are better than others.  For example, sugar maple can be better, but good curl is more infrequent.  A good percentage of walnut isn't suitable for stock wood as is cherry.

Jim

This right here.  The "savings" of cutting one or a few trees for stock wood is often offset by the wastes and unuseable wood discovered.  No log is really known until it's been opened up by the blade or wedge. And anything near a yard, homesite, or fencerow is extremely likely have metal or other trash in it, on top of the chance of wood issues otherwise.

BUT by all means recover all you can as you can, just don't count on it being economical or a sure thing. It's another gamble. 

[Sawfiler]

I cringe whenever somebody brings us a log out of their yard. We will still saw it, but we use a metal detector down all sides and let the customer know if we hit metal they owe us a new set of Simonds stand-all blue tips. Not to mention trees out of a yard usually grow fast and have wide growth rings, more sapwood and softer wood in general.

[David R. Pennington]

I cringe whenever somebody brings us a log out of their yard. We will still saw it, but we use a metal detector down all sides and let the customer know if we hit metal they owe us a new set of Simonds stand-all blue tips. Not to mention trees out of a yard usually grow fast and have wide growth rings, more sapwood and softer wood in general.

I told the guy who sawed my logs where they came from and he said when he hit a nail it would cost me the cost of a saw blade. (He used a portable type mill with band saw blades) I paid for one blade and it was still VERY reasonable cost considering the amount of lumber I got.

[Sawfiler]

The band mills don't seem to sustain as much damage from metal as the circular saws do. I have sawed quite a bit with a woodmizer and hitting a nail with these thin kerf blades seems to not damage the blades beyond repair if it is just one nail hit perpendicular. Our circle headsaw takes a 1/4 inch kerf and has 44 teeth to replace. Last teeth we bought were $1.75 a piece and usually a solid hit cannot be swaged and filed out of these teeth. One nail might damage 10-15 of the teeth so they have to be replaced. Also, feed rate on the circle mill is much faster, so by the time you hear that distinct metal sound you have already sawed deep into whatever it might be.

[Turtle]

 I spoke to a man who is a sawyer using a big circular blade and he told me metal in the wood can cause injury or even death to the sawyer. he won't
ever saw lawn or line trees.

[Sawfiler]

With our mill there seems to be enough other things that will kill you first. Everytime we hit metal it’s just a nasty sound followed by cussing and an hour of trying to get the saw filed right again. We did have a shank spring get loose one time and send a sawbit into my dads shoulder. (He was the sawyer) left a nice scar but wasn’t what I would describe as life threatening, and was unrelated to hitting metal.  We have a pretty good screen he can duck behind now. 50” saw blade. The bigger saws might be different.

[Turtle]

 I have read that sawyers work stations sometimes had a protection armor type plate. Is this true?

[Craig Wilcox]

Was supervising a site being cleared by a feller-buncher about ten years ago down south.  The track-mounted machine had a horizontal blade 4' in diameter with about 50 teeth on it.  Grabs the tree, then saws it off at ground level, then lays the cut trees in bunches.  These trees were averaging about 18-24" DBH.

Operator is protected by some armor plate stuff.

I was about 200 yd away when that blade hit an old piece of farm equipment that a tree had grown around.  Pieces of blade impacted near me, and a truck that was parked much closer was ruined.
Astonishing what machinery can do in situations like that.

Craig