Thread: U.S. Cherry

Have a look at Myrtle Beech, Qld Maple and Merbau. Get into Mathews timbers, Adams Timber or Australian Furniture timbers, all in Melbourne and have a look at their sample boards. Tell them you want trade price and never pay full retail without kicking up a big fuss. Especially at Mathews.

Hope this helps - Neil

Do as Neil suggested...

Interesting choices Neil - Myrtle certainly has that great brown/orange colouring but I have found it to be a bit too unstable for fine cabinet work and Merbau makes great sills - so Qld Maple is a possibility though probably what I was really looking for was a timber that mimics the look of fruitwood - I probably should take your advice and get my butt out of the workshop and have a look through Mathews or Adams - incidently the price of Cherry is not overly relieved by trade or retail pricing because the difference /m3 between 25mm thick and 50mm thick is $1000 - high world demand and a finite resource is more likely the cause. Again thanks for your help.
Rod

Rod - Strip of the polish from 60% of furniture made during the mid 50's - mid 70's (especially anything finished as rosewood) and you will almost invariably find Myrtle Beech, or at least that is what I have found in countless restoration of pieces from this period.

Mathews (the last time I was there was quite some time ago) had some timbers there that had similar type grain pattern to that of cherry, however they did not have the close grain of that timber, they were much more open grained and I would reckon much harder.

The maple I have used has been a more honey colour than cherry but mostly seemed to have an underlying fiddleback or quilting type pattern, this is probably why it is also known as silk wood. Very nice stuff to use but different again to cherry. I believe the dust can be a bit nasty, but can't tell you any more than that.

If anyone has more information on dust problems associater with Queensland Maple, I would like to know about them so as to update the Bad Woods page.

Hope this is of a bit more help.

Cheers - Neil

Hi guys, re the above,
Don't confuse Qld Maple with its brother, Maple Silkwood. They are both Flindersias and grow side by side, but have totally different colour and working properties.
As I cut a lot of both of these in the forest and then process and dry it, for my wood turning, I have not noticed any problems with the sap or the dust. But this is only my personal observation. I find a lot more problems with other rainforest timbers.
Re the colour, It depends what kind of finish
you want to use as both of these timbers come up quite reddish when coated with peanut oil. Not much good if you want to use
spray lacqers as a finish.
Regards Richard.

Neil, I've made a number of parquetry tables using various fruit woods and it was only recently pointed out to me the danger that exists from residual pesticides lodged in the timber and released through contaminated dust - this is a real problem with orchard wood and really makes me wonder about the safety of using my growing pile of fruit wood.
Regards Rod