Cherry Hardwood Question

[Mel Fulks]

Rich, there is ONE otter that eats that much. On tv I saw Richard Simmons trying to get him to move his flippers "just five
more times".

[John Downey]

Your friend is wrong, unless he is using the word "fade" incorrectly to mean "become darker"

Oxygen darkens cherry. Moderate UV accelerates oxidation of whatever chemical it is in the wood that causes the color. Intense sunlight, like we get up where I live will bleach any wood to a much lighter color and then to a uniform grey. Might take several years for a finished piece in a sunny room to get bleached, or a raw piece left outside at 7000' in the summer takes about a month

[Lee Schierer]

He is correct ... I purchased some 2"+ thick Cherry boards from a guy who had them stored in a dark crawlspace under his shop for at least 40+ years ... they are deep, dark red clear through, and probably haven't seen the light of day in decades. Lots of things will darken Cherry and eliminating one of them may slow the process, but won't stop it.

I have some cherry that is also 50+ years old and it is dark all the way through. It has 20-30 growth rings per inch as opposed to the 10-12 growth rings per inch in recently purchased cherry. I know that it has not seen light for most of that time, but I also know that old growth cherry starts out darker than the new growth cherry we are harvesting today.

[johnny means]

Cherry will all eventually darken to a certain point. Light simply speeds the process. For instance, a built in cherry library will darken near windows faster than under the books, but the areas covered by books will eventually catch up. The color change is a chemical reaction and will happen regardless of exposure. Sunlight simply supplies an energy source to quicken the reaction.