Cherry
Also called: american cherry, wild cherry, prunus
One page. Other spellings and regional names stay on this URL.
Cherry is a smooth, close-grained hardwood used for furniture, fine veneer panels, architectural woodwork and carefully made interior joinery.
Choosing the wood
Cherry has a fine texture and usually gives clean-looking work. Heartwood is the mature inner wood, while sapwood is the younger outer band. In American cherry, the heartwood resists decay better than the sapwood, which can be attacked by the common furniture beetle, a small wood-boring insect, so keep sapwood out of exposed or vulnerable parts when the job demands that protection.
Working it by hand
European cherry works with hand tools and machines. A plane, which is a cutting tool used to level and smooth a board, can travel readily across a hardwood such as cherry when its blade is sharp and the cut is controlled. Mark out carefully and support the work well, because a clean surface is part of the reason to choose this timber.
Uses in joinery
Cherry is suited to furniture, fine veneers and architectural woodwork where the timber itself remains visible. Veneer is a thin layer of wood fixed to a panel, allowing a carefully selected face to cover a more stable backing. Cherry can also be used for contrasting details such as splines, thin reinforcing pieces set across a joint, when the design calls for a visible change of species.