What to do with a Cherry Tree

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cd

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I have been offered a small (about 10" dia trunk I've been told) cherry tree. I have not seen it yet but if I help to fell it I'm welcome to any wood I want. I want to use it for turning and so I'm looking for advice on how to cut it up store it ect until I can use it. Some I would like to turn green but I would also like to leave some to dry for a bit. I'm aware that I need to seal the ends of the logs but any other advice/comments to help me make the most of this would be grateful.


cd
 
CD,

Welcome to thw forum. Cherry can be a tricky wood to season - I have tried air drying some branches and some trunk wood on two seperate occasions, and both times they split badly. Next time I am going to plank them before putting them to dry - might be worth your while planking yours too if you have the facilities / time / inclination.

If you are going to dry some, I would suggest that you need to find somewhere cool to stack it, and make sure that it is out of any direct sunlight. Seal the ends either with a specialist endgrain sealer, or with any old PVA glue that you have that needs using up (thanks to Alf for that tip!).

Good luck!

Gary
 
Thanks Alf for the links lots of helpful stuff there,
Gary spoke to a fellow turner at work said the same thing, Cherry tends to split very badly when drying.
I am now wondering since I want to turn it would it be better to rough turn it quite soon then let it dry out a for a while. Or should I just try to finish items quite thin and hope they don't split as they dry

cd
 
CD,

I don't really know the answer to your question. Alan Holtham wrote an article in one of the turning mags about rough turning a load of cherry blanks and they all split and had to be thrown away. I think it depends on how much residual stress is in the wood to start with. I read an article somewhere that said cherry is very susceptible to residual stress, so for example if it has been growing somewhere very windy, it will have a lot of stresses in it, which cause splitting as it dries. Also, branch wood has more stress in due to having to resist the force of gravity while growing - I don't know whether this is true or not, but it seemed a reasonable theory.

You may have more success wet turning them nice and thin, but I suspect that you may have a few "splitters" even then.

Good luck!

Gary
 
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