Fruit cherry for bowls?

[Bernie Kopfer]

My neighbor is taking out of his orchard a large number of cherry trees, 7-10in diameter trunks. Is fruit cherry wood a good wood to use for making bowls etc? Any special problems? Thanks

[Richard Coers]

Likes to crack easily if not turned right away. Won't have much red color in the center of a 7" diameter. Will peel like a potato if turned green. High acid and will rust a lathe bed in very short order if the chips are left sitting on it.

[John K Jordan]

My neighbor is taking out of his orchard a large number of cherry trees, 7-10in diameter trunks. Is fruit cherry wood a good wood to use for making bowls etc? Any special problems? Thanks

Wood from edible cherry trees is good to turn, as is other fruit wood - apple, pear, plumb, etc. But that small of diameter will make a small bowl, will put the pith and juvenile wood very near some part of the bowl, or put the pith in the bowl. The wood is likely to be unstable and crack with the pith near or in the piece. If it were a 24" trunk I'd say away from the pith and go for it.

With a small diameter trunk some options are
- turn it immediately, seal the entire ouside, dry slowly and hope for the best,
- turn immediately and with very thin, uniform walls (not too thick at the base), dry slowly
- cut it into blanks, seal well, dry slowly, and hope for the best

I often do the last one with a variety of fruit woods - I cut bowl, box, ornament or thin spindle blanks, seal with Anchorseal, and allow to dry. If well sealed and dried slowly the success rate is pretty high. Success is more likely the smaller the blank, for example spindle blanks. 10" log sections can make 3" blanks for turning smaller boxes. If the blank includes sap wood I generally seal those surfaces as well as the end grain.

Also, trees are vastly different. For example, I've had some black cherry start to crack in minutes before I could even get it sealed and some crack terribly even though well sealed. But I had wood from big one black cherry that simply refused to crack regardless of what I did. I left one short log section out in the sun for years and it never did crack. I still have some fairly big blanks from that tree drying now for at least 10 years and still in perfect shape. I think it's always worth trying.

JKJ

[Mitchell Carroll]

Hi, I have another cherry question. My neighbor is taking down a Kwansan cherry tree, does anyone know if this wood looks nice ,turns well, etc ? Thanks !

[Barry McFadden]

I had a cherry tree that died about a year ago. The trunk was about 8" across. I cut it down and cut into smaller pieces and sealed the ends. Haven't had really any cracking and I'm suprised at how dry it feels already. I've turned a few small bowls and this oil candle without any problems....

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[Bernie Kopfer]

Good information, Thank you!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have turned a few Fruit Cherry logs, the wood turns very nice and looks good, no problem drying in my way (brown paper bag with nothing else added).
What I found is that the wood does not turn dark like Black Cherry, but stays more looking like new turned Cherry, even after several years, as we have one or two sitting here for probably 10 years or better, they still have that lighter color and I find that quite appealing, a couple pictures here from some I turned.

Cherry plate.jpg Cherry shallow bowl.jpg Cherry dish.jpg Cherry dish side view.jpg