End Grain: Cherry (Prunus Serotina)

Hey! I've decided to give my blog a name: End Grain- my thoughts written down for you presented at the end of the week (get it?) This week I thought I would talk about a real common yet integral part of the woodworking world: Cherry. 

For almost the whole first year that I've been woodworking now I had never used Cherry until a couple months ago and now it's one of my go-to woods for a lot of projects. I often integrate this wood into my cutting boards now and even made my girlfriend's Christmas present out of a single Cherry board (she loved it). 

The grain on most Cherry is straight which makes it easy to work with. The colour only gets nicer with age, usually gaining a red patina the older it gets. Before I found out how great Cherry can be I was using Maple to contrast to others woods such as Walnut and Padauk but now that I have found this species I have a less harsh wood to match with anything darker. 

If you've looked through my photo gallery you'll notice I love working with colourful exotic woods but Cherry has turned out to be a great species of domestic wood that I am learning to incorporate more often into things. It seems to match quite well with these exotics too as well as matching great with Walnut, another quality domestic wood. 

I find this wood to be very easy to work with mostly because of how nice the grain tends to run and even though it is a hardwood I have never had any problems with it and any of my tools not being able to handle its toughness or blades having trouble cutting. 

If you have any questions or think you might want to use some Cherry in your own custom wood piece please let me know, I'd love to hear from you!