Geographical Distribution
The wood commonly known as Cherry, or Black Cherry, is known to botanists and other plant scientists are Prunus serotina. If the genus Prunus sounds familiar that is probably because it includes plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds. There are at least eight varieties and subspecies of P. serotina which contributes to the very large geographic distribution of P. serotina.
Various different varities and subspecies of P. serotina grow in a very wide range from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick west to Southern Quebec and Ontario into Michigan and eastern Minnesota; south to Iowa, extreme eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, then east to central Florida. Several varieties extend the range: Alabama Black Cherry (var. alabamensis) is found in eastern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, and northwest Florida with local stands in North and South Carolina; Escarpment Cherry (var. eximia) grows in the Edwards Plateau region of central Texas; Southwestern Black Cherry (var. rufula) ranges from the mountains of Trans-Pecos Texas west to Arizona and south into Mexico; Capulin Black Cherry (var. salicifolia) is native from central Mexico to Guatemala and is naturalized in several South American countries.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture there are additional isolated and local populations in Washington state and British Columbia.
Cherry Bowl Front
For certain, not all of these regional varieties and subspecies are harvested for lumber. Most all of the timber harvested comes from the main line species from the eastern United States.
There are several other common woods that include the name “cherry” in their common name, including: African Cherry, Brazilian Cherry, Patagonian Cherry, and Sweet Cherry. Of those, only one, Sweet Cherry, is a member of the genus Prunus, P. avium, which is native to Europe and western Asia.
For the sake of simplicity, common understanding, and clarity, I will refer to P. serotina from this point forward as Black Cherry.
General Characteristics
The highly desirable heartwood of Black Cherry features a light pinkish brown color when freshly cut. The color will slowly darken to a medium reddish-brown with time and exposure to light. The sapwood of the Black Cherry is a pale yellowish color. Often, the sapwood is quite extensive which can result in extensive timber loss as the sapwood is not commercially valuable or widely used.
The grain of Black Cherry is usually quite straight and therefore easy to work with. However, highly figured pieces featuring a curly grain pattern can be found. Such highly figured pieces will command very premium prices as they are uncommon.
Black Cherry, when properly surfaced, features a fine even texture with a moderate natural luster.
The end-grain sections of Black Cherry are diffuse and porous with no specific arrangement. Mineral and gum deposits are occasionally present. The presence of gum deposits, which can cause black streaking, is viewed by some users as highly desirably and such pieces are sometimes sold as “gum-streaked Cherry.”
Growth rings are usually distinct.
The heartwood of Black Cherry is rated as very durable and resistant to decay.
Working Characteristics
Amongst wood-workers Black Cherry is known for being one of the best all-around woods in terms of workability characteristics. Black Cherry is a stable and straight-grained wood that generally and machines well. However, if a good deal of curly figure is present tear-out can occur as is true of most any figured wood.
One of the only difficulties that often arise with the use of Black Cherry in woodworking applications is when the wood is stained. In a manner similar to that often observed with Maple, Black Cherry can stain with blotchy results. As is also true of staining Maple, it can help to use a sanding sealer prior to staining. Alternatively, the use of a gel-based stain can be helpful and is recommended by some professionals.
Black Cherry has a mild, distinctive, and mostly considered pleasant scent when freshly cut or otherwise worked.
Cherry Bowl Exterior
Uses
Black Cherry is highly sought after for use in high-end cabinetry and fine furniture. Black Cherry can also be used for flooring, interior millwork, veneer, turned objects, and small specialty wood items. Highly figured pieces may also be used for gun stocks or knife handles.
The wood may also be used for cooking or smoking foods, especially meats, to which it imparts a unique and desirable flavor.
A cough medicine known as “Black Cherry Syrup” can be extracted from the bark by those fond of traditional folk remedies.
Pricing
Since Black Cherry is a domestic lumber, prices should be moderate. However, Black Cherry will typically sell for higher prices than oak or maple, more closely mirroring the prices of Black Walnut.
I always recommend both West Penn Hardwoods and Bell Forest Products as excellent sources of both domestic and exotic hardwoods. I have had multiple dealings with both vendors and have always been very satisfied.
West Penn Hardwoods is not selling bowl blank stock at this time athough they do have spindle stock. Most of the Black Cherry they sell is in the form of dimensional lumber, with 4/4 Black Cherry selling for $7.00 a board foot. Figured Curly Black Cherry sells for almost twice that, going for $11.00 per board foot. In cases, closeout and quantity discount pricing is available.
Bell Forest Products is honestly a better choice for Black Cherry in that they stock about 26 different standard dimensions including bowl blanks as large as 8” x 8” x 3”. All of their Black Cherry stock, including bowl blanks, is kiln dried and therefore dimensionally stable and ready to turn without taking additional precautions associated with green turning. As is often the case, Bell Forest Products is also offering unique boards with special character that a buyer can select individually from photos.
I have also recently discovered and have had fantastic experiences with two vendors selling strictly, or mostly, domestic woods native to the Southeastern United States. Those vendors are NC Wood and TurningBlanks.net (Got Wood?) of North and South Carolina respectively.
At this time, NCWood is only selling a small number of spindle block sizes. It is not possible to know exactly how much of anything is in stock as the NCWood website does not disclose this information. Gary, the owner, has stocked Black Cherry bowl blanks, and entire Black Cherry burls, in the past so I would keep checking as he sells fantastic wood at very reasonable prices.
TurningBlanks.net sells a small number of sizes of kiln dried Black Cherry and a large range of green and waxed bowl blanks up to 8” x 3” for $13.33. Kiln dried pieces are considerably more expensive because kiln drying large blocks is both time consuming and technically challenging. A kiln dried Black Cherry bowl blank of 10” x 4” sells for $55.56. All of their stock, except spindle blanks of course, is sold in the round and they provide real-time inventory numbers for every item.
These guys also sell some variants that I have not seen at any other hardwood vendor. They sell “gum streaked Black Cherry” which was explained above and well as “Sweet Cherry” which could be harvested from fruit-bearing trees of it could actually be the European species, P. avium. I just am not certain and the wood looks very similar, on the outside at least, to regular Black Cherry but only relatively small sizes are available.
The only precaution I have with this vendor is shipping costs, which I recognize they do not control. Green wood contains lots of water, which is heavy, and UPS, their shipper of choice, charges by weight and distance. It can cost me, within one day delivery range from the shipper, over $50 in shipping alone to buy about a dozen blanks, meaning that the shipping costs far outweigh the price of any of the blanks I buy. You must calculate this into your shopping or be prepared to be surprised at checkout (you will know the proposed shipping amount BEFORE the sale is final).
All four of these vendors are family owned operations of varying size, with NCWood probably being the smallest closely followed by TurningBlanks.net and I have consistently received outstanding service and outstanding product from all four.
While the four dealers above are personal favorites, Black Cherry is likely to be readily obtainable from other hardwood dealers, probably including one near you if you live in the eastern United States or Canada. If you don’t have a favorite supplier that you have worked with extensively in the past, by all means shop around for the best prices and the best selection to meet your particular wood working needs.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising exotic wood dealers. In your search for Black Cherry, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings, including just plain “Cherry.” I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer near their home in person to hand pick nice pieces at a comfortable price.
Whenever possible, obtain photos of the actual piece you will be buying or better yet, pick your blanks in person. This is especially sage advice when in the market for especially pricey pieces of turning wood, although this shouldn’t be an issue with Black Cherry, unless it is advertised as highly curly and quartersawn, in which case you will want a good look first.
Cherry Bowl Interior
Sustainability
Black Cherry is not listed as being in any way threatened or endangered by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices nor does it appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
Black Cherry is not subject to special restrictions by any United States government agency.
I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby. I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon. I am also very confident that the vendor from whom I purchased my stocks of Black Cherry sourced their material legally and responsibly. In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors. I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase exotic wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.
I also realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations. This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store. Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.
Health Hazards
Black Cherry sawdust has been occasionally associated with respiratory effects such as wheezing. If a woodworker has asthma or any other obstructive respiratory condition, care must be taken to reduce any negative impact. In addition, the long-term negative effects of exposure to sawdust of any species are well documented.
Appropriate protective equipment is always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.
Complete information about health hazards associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database. Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.
Fortunately, I experienced no negative side effects when working with Black Cherry.
My Personal Experiences
Black Cherry has easily become one of my all-time favorite woods to work with. I have consistently found it be relatively easy to turn and sand, although every once in a while there are some challenging end-grain areas. As my experience has grown and as long as I maintain sharp tool surfaces, I experience increasingly positive outcomes with Black Cherry which furthers my fondness for working with the wood.
Black Cherry also has the advantage of being relatively affordable and also quite local. There are Black Cherry trees actively growing on both pieces of property that we own in north Georgia at this time. If I thought I could have a tree felled and milled for a reasonable price I would do so and turn the results gladly.
Even quite large pieces of Black Cherry can be had for affordable prices which gives me, and other wood turners, an opportunity to affordably work with larger and larger pieces to expand our skills and experience.
Black Cherry is in my experience quite stable and strong so quite thin and fine pieces can be turned with little risk of breakage or warping. I greatly enjoy the natural color of Black Cherry as well and although I am at times tempted to not apply a finish beyond a simple wax to try a maintain the beautiful pale pinks that are so common in the pieces I have turned, I always find that a single application of Watco Danish Oil in the Cherry color makes the piece even more beautiful than before. The Danish Oil, while it is colored, does not obscure the wood’s natural color, grain, or figure at all, instead I find that it greatly enhances an already beautiful piece.
I look forward to continuing to work with Black Cherry in the future both near and distant. I have multiple pieces in the shop, in different locations, in varying stages of dryness, or perhaps I will get impatient and do a green turning one of these days. However, it comes about, I know I will be working with Black Cherry again and that causes me to be a very happy wood-turner.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!