Wuudchuck’s Wuudwerks

Range

Black cherry’s natural growth range is throughout Maine westward to eastern North Dakota and southward to central areas of Florida and Texas. It also occurs in the mountain ranges of western Texas. The largest supplies of black cherry are believed to be located in the Appalachian Mountains in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Properties

Black cherry is a moderately heavy wood with an average weight of 35 pounds a cubic foot. The wood is also moderately hard, with a specific gravity of 0.47. Stiff and strong, it ranks high in resistance to shock.

Although it has moderately large shrinkage, black cherry stays in place well after seasoning and is comparatively free from checking and warping. It has moderate resistance to decay. The wood is difficult to work with handtools but ranks high in bending strength. It can be glued satisfactorily with moderate care.

Uses

Nearly all the black cherry cut is sawed into lumber for various products. Much goes into furniture and considerable amounts are used for backing blocks on which electrotype plates, used in printing, are mounted. Other uses include burial caskets, woodenware and novelties, patterns and flasks for metalworking, plumbers’ woodwork, and finish in buildings and railway coaches.

Description

Black cherry, which is not easily confused with other native species because of its distinctive color, has light to dark reddish brown heartwood. Although individual pores are not visible to the naked eye, their pattern is sometimes distinctive. On end-grain surfaces, the pores may appear to form lines that parallel the growth rings, while on plainsawed surfaces, they may follow the outline of the growth-ring boundary.

The wood rays of cherry are barely visible on end-grain surfaces and tend to produce a distinctive flake pattern on true quartersawed surfaces. They are higher along the grain than those of walnut and hence show more prominently on quartersawed surfaces.