Contemplating Cherry

Cherry logs have started turning up at the log dump in droves over the past few years. Some are diseased, but others are in beautiful condition.

A piece of local cherry was actually the first wood that I 'rescued', probably 15 years ago now. My dad had some cherry in his firewood pile, they had come from a street tree near where I had grown up. I grabbed a few of the best ones and cleaned them up. I still have some of it. Here it is on the back of a cabinet I made for my sister a couple years ago. If you look closely you can see that there are black streaks between some of the growth rings. This is not uncommon in the local cherry and is definitely a bit of a downside. I don't know what causes it, but luckily not all trees have it.

The cherry street trees in Vancouver are not the well-known black cherry of eastern Canada and the US, or commercial cherries grown for fruit. Rather they are are almost entirely cultivars of Prunus serrulata, Japanese flowering cherries, grown for their outstanding blossoms.

According to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival website: "By the time the Park Board completed its first comprehensive street tree inventory in 1990, nearly 36 percent of the 89,000 trees on city streets were represented by trees of the Prunus genus—the flowering plum and cherry trees. Of the 479 different classifications of trees identified in the inventory, the most common species was Prunus serrulata ‘Kwanzan’, the Kwanzan flowering cherry. (12.6 percent)" 479 different types of cherry/plum trees growing in town? Wow!

Here is a photo of a Kwanzan tree in full bloom not far from my house. Beautiful!

Another interesting fact about the local cherry trees is that they are all grafted. The flowering named cultivar is grafted onto a trunk of a more robust cherry variety. I have been unable to identify the name of the variety commonly used for the trunk, although my dad, who grew up in Vancouver in the 30's, told me that there was a tree near Stanley Park from which the branches were taken to make the trunks. Don't know if that's true or not but there you have it!

I do know that the trunk wood is quite consistent across the many cherry logs I have milled, so I can believe that there was a common source for them. It has a milder look to it than black cherry, I have heard that it is more like European cherry wood.

So the graft union between the flowering branches and the trunk often creates some interesting patterns. Here is a photo of one with particularly strong contrast between the two woods. The flowering wood is on top and is much more colourful than the trunk wood below.

This was a complete small tree that my son and I rescued after a homeowner cut it down. We put it in our van just as another person pulled up who wanted it for firewood! He was not happy but we got some interesting slabs out of it. The graft line is visible, but the contrast between the two types of wood is not much.  You will note that the majority of the cherry I have is made up of the unknown trunk wood variety rather than the flowering branch wood.

Some of these local trees get quite large. This one is 3 feet across. They grow fast as they get plenty of water and they are spaced far enough apart that they do not have to compete for sunlight. The growth rings can be a bit coarse though.

Here's one that is a bit more gnarly.

And in contrast here are some nice thick clear slabs without any graft line. Sorry about the edge view!

My friend who is a woodturner often comes out and mills with me. He loves using these wide thick cherry slabs for large platters. He says they make his shop smell like cherry pie when he is turning them!

This is how these logs look before milling up. They are sometimes only three feet long, a six footer would be a long one.

Fresh off the saw they often display an orange tint.

Drying-wise I find cherry a bit fussy. I will leave it outside under cover to dry for two years (or at least two summers which is when most of the drying gets done in this part of the world), then put it in my dehumidifying kiln to squeeze out the last couple percent of moisture. My rule of thumb for cherry is that if it is milled too thin the slabs will warp like crazy, and if they are milled too thick they will crack! Slabs flat cut from the outside of the log will warp much more than slabs cut rift or quarter.

Some of the quartersawn grain can be stunning.

Contemplating Arbutus

Arbutus is not common in the city, in fact I know of only a few trees in town. And I have never found it in the log dump. But it is native to nearby undeveloped areas that are a touch warmer/drier, such as the cliffs above West Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, the Gulf Islands, and Vancouver Island. I have seen it along the Skeena River in northern BC, and I believe it grows as far south as Mexico. In the US it is called Madrone.

I received a couple small firewood sized pieces from a friend several years ago, but the main part of my supply comes from two trips I made a couple years apart to the property of a family friend on one of the smaller Gulf Islands. They had several trees which had come down in the winter due to accumulations of heavy wet snow. Due to the two ferries required to get there, it was an overnight trip to get there, although I was able to get back at the end of the day of cutting.

I cut from this same log on both visits, which were a couple years apart. The other trees which had come down were both hung up in other trees so I did not go anywhere near them! The slabs were about 16" wide and I cut them at 8' so they would fit in the truck.

Four years later when I went back to cut some more, the wood had started to stain quite a bit.

I air dried the slabs for two years before running them through my dehumidifier kiln. My experience is that Arbutus is the most badly behaved and frustrating wood to try and dry! The amount of waste is incredibly dismaying. It cracks freely at any excuse and it also warps tremendously.

These slabs are from my first expedition. The cracking is evident.

Here is a close up, the grain is very lovely.

From my second expedition, the wood has a much darker tone to it due to the staining from sitting on the ground for an additional 4 years.

And the grain is still lovely despite the staining.

More Wood Contemplation

Monterey Cypress

This is a very common local softwood, although it is not mentioned in my go-to tree book "Street Trees of Vancouver", which surprises me. I find it in the log dump all the time, it is one of the most common trees to show up there. Some logs can be in the range of 2 feet in diameter.

I am not 100% sure that it truly is "Monterey Cypress" (Cupressus macrocarpa). It was identified for me by one of the most knowledgeable local woodworkers, and I have also referenced it in Romelyn Hough's epic tome. So I am pretty sure, but there is still a tiny chance that it could be something else, perhaps a hybrid or something.

Its bark has a touch of  red/pink in the cambium. The wood itself has lovely shades of orange and tan, and since the tree generally seems to grow fairly straight here, when quartersawn the grain has a very regular straight appearance. The slabs dry quickly and rarely exhibit any warping or cracking. Well behaved I call it!

The wood invites comparison to Port Orford cedar in my mind. The aroma is similar, and delightful, but a bit sharper or perhaps spicier. But not overwhelming or cloying in any way. It is of course soft, and it is fairly light as well, lighter than PO Cedar. It often exhibits interesting streaks of colour, oranges and pinks and tans.

The local cabinetmakers love PO Cedar for the insides of cabinets and draws, its bright white colour and aroma are perfect in that application. My feeling is that Monterey Cypress is equal to PO Cedar, but having a bit of colour and personality of its own!

Contemplating Wood

At the IP Celebration earlier in the month, and coming home took the opportunity to reread A Cabinetmaker's Notebook by James Krenov.

I am extremely fortunate to have had access for nearly ten years now to a near limitless supply of locally grown woods, in raw log form. And hopefully I will continue to have the same access in the future! With a couple of chainsaw mills and lots of friends, I have milled up over 200 logs into planks.

The rereading of Krenov reinspired me to go through my wood stash and look for interesting pieces that might lead to an interesting project. Even though it is only May, the summer woodworking doldrums are upon me and my always slow progress has ground to a halt. So I thought over the next while I would post some random photos of wood in my stash.

Manitoba Maple. Known as Box Elder in the USA.

I've milled up several of these logs over the years. They are probably one of the most stunning woods right from the log, the reds/pinks/oranges are unbelievable. The wood chips from the chainsaw look like they are soaked in blood! I sometimes check my legs nervously when I am milling this wood, just to make sure the blood colour is not from me but from the wood!

(you can click on these photos to see them larger)

This was probably the biggest piece of Manitoba maple I ever milled.

These next two really show the deep colour of the sawdust!

One of my buddies extremely happy with the loot. Even though it was a small log, we were happy to mill/cut it up into usable pieces. Don't want to waste anything this crazy!

And a log as I often see them in the 'wild'. The red on the end grain is a huge clue, but often times that will have oxidized away. The kind of scaly/flaky nature of the bark as well the lighter colour of the bark are also good clues. 

Sadly the colour fades quite a bit once the slabs are dry. A little work with a block plane will reveal the treasure underneath though!

The wood is especially prone to cracking, most often right in the most intensely coloured sections.

I find the wood very overpowering. I think it can be used to advantage more easily in small amounts. Sometimes the wood also contains figure and burls and spalting. 

Or the less intensely coloured sections can be utilized. It would be fun to see if these would work as a set of door panels, or perhaps the inside of a cabinet where they would offer a touch of colour when the doors were opened. . 

IP Celebration

I had the good fortune to be able to zip up to Robert's Creek May 2 for an overnight trip and spend a couple of hours at the tenth anniversary celebration of the Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking.

It was a good omen that the weather was fantastic and the scenery on the ferry trip over, really, can it be beat anywhere in the world??

The ferry was the Queen of Surrey. Cute little ferry for the 45 minute journey.

Flag on the ferry snapping proudly in the breeze.

It was so good to reconnect with Robert and Yvonne. Also ran into a bunch of people from 'before', Bill, Craig and Carol, Jay, Juan, Ian, and others. And met some new folks as well. There is such a wonderful spirit at the school, I find it so re-invigorating to be there.

There were so many fine pieces on display for the celebration, it was a little bit overwhelming to contemplate the time and effort and energy that had gone into them all. I was delighted to see this cabinet made from an unusual type of spalted maple, with a base of kwila.

This picture makes it look a bit top heavy which it was not at all, that is completely the result of my inadequate photography skills. However, note the way the spalting is concentrated at the centre of the cabinet, and decreases towards the outside. Kudos to the maker who is from Oregon and who I chatted with at length but fail to recall his name. Beautifully done!

That cabinet was especially exciting for me since I have 5 quite large slabs of maple with that exact type of spalting in them! They have been hanging around for years looking for the perfect use. I think I may have found it in the inspiration of this cabinet.

I really need to come up with an excuse to go back to school for a few weeks!

Cherry Blossoms

We did some landscaping 15 years ago and planted a flowering cherry tree in the backyard. It is in full bloom right now and gorgeous. Looks like a giant fluffy creampuff or something. I took a few pictures yesterday. I like this one best since the cluster of flowers in the foreground is backlit by the sun.

Not really anything to do with woodworking, but I thought it worthy.

Plane Underway and Other Ramblings

Well after my last post lamenting my unhappiness at my jointer plane and stating that I was thinking of gluing some 'extensions' on the side to give it a bit more heft,  my friend Bill dropped me a note and asked if I needed a piece of lignum to glue on the bottom to see if that would help. Wow!

Then I was talking to another friend about the best length for a jointer plane and he suggested I drop by his studio to check out his two jointer planes. A few days later I did visit him and he gifted me a beautiful clean chunk of Macassar Ebony to make a new jointer plane with. Wow again!

Meanwhile I had also been toying with a piece of jarrah that I had also received from Bill, a few years ago. It was a long piece that was reclaimed, and also had some cracks, but I was able to cut out a 16" clear section from it. It was a bear to plane, the grain was a bit wild, and I wound up having to scrape it smooth.

So now I have the possibility of three jointer planes: Jarrah on the left, Macassar ebony middle, and my existing plane made of ekki.

Working these woods right away I notice how hard they are, and tough to plane cleanly. The Janka hardness of the jarrah is 1910, while the Macassar ebony is 3220, and the Ekki 3550. Jarrah is noted as a wood that is hard to work due to interlocking grain, the Macassar is quite a bit harder still, and also has some interlocking grain. Surprisingly, at least for me, the ekki which is the hardest of the three seems to plane the most cleanly. I still need to do a bit of cleanup on the Macassar, then I will cut the sides out of it.

I also decided that it was time to start on a project that I have needed to do for a while, but wanted to wait until I had no other projects on the go at the same time, like the shoji lamp, to distract me. My father passed away in October of 2013 and I told my sister that I would make a box for his ashes before we took them to the cemetery. So it is time for me to get that done and to put dad to rest.

I have a design in mind, and plan to use yellow cedar for the main part of the box and cherry for the lid. Dad was a handy kind of guy and worked occasionally with yellow cedar. I remember going into his workshop as a child and him expounding on how wonderful the yellow cedar smell was. So I think he would like that choice. And the cherry is from a street tree near our house when I was growing up, the tree was cut down around 2000 and dad salvaged some chunks from it. He had them in his firewood bin and I grabbed a few of the larger ones a few years later.

Here I've resawn from one chunk a couple small pieces that I plan to use as the lid.

And not to forget that I have been out milling a couple times recently too. Bill and I were out a couple weeks ago and got a nice Port Orford cedar log. Half the slabs we took were a bit knotty, but the other half, about 5 slabs probably, were gorgeous.

Then last week I was out again and picked up some quilted maple. Also milled up some horse chestnut that had some gorgeous colours in it that same day, although I did not take any myself.