Thread: Cherry Ballart/Wild Cherry

If it's the same as the cherry's we get here in the UK. The wood is creamy, wide grained, cut's well and takes a fine finish.

But unless you working a crotch piece or something else with some figure, quite uninspiring unless you do something with it, texture, colour, piercing etc.

Then again it's free wood, so it's got to be good, and if you save the council time & cost by taking it away, why should they care.

I'd get in fast - because sure as 'egg is eggs', someone else is having the same thought.

I think I got some wild cherry somewhere! Could be good. Won't be the same as normal cherry. That smells like you are turning cherry pie!

How big is is? You kinda need to rip it down the middle through the heart wood. then paint the end grain with something. Just paint, or "end grain sealer" if you want to get technical. Or dip the ends in melted wax. although that seems to stop the drying almost completely. Turn some or all of it while it is green, if you are doing bowls. Its fun.

ALWAYS worth retrieving freebies, especially unknown species.

If the wood is not so good or interesting then what have you lost but a bit of time and effort?

On the other hand........

A bit of googling shows it's been used for furniture, gun stocks etc - can't be too bad

Thanks folks,

I'm going to break out the chain saw tomorrow. I'll let you know what it looks like.

Yeah, it's worth it. Turned one lump named as such; fine grain, medium density, light pinkish brown.

in most respects, very much like myrtle

I had a request from a lady to turn a bowl from apiece of wild cherry that was growing on her patents place. I thought it may have been too green.
Here is the results.
Regards
David

Nice colour, far better than our cherries, which as I said is quite creamy and bland at best a honey colour after a bit of UV and other exposure.

It's not a real cherry though:

http://www.anbg.gov.au/apu/plants/exoccupr.html

Great timber, I milled ( badly ) a log of that that blew over near Ballarat, it is great to turn, heavier than US cherry , and a higher oil content , with a strange smell. The tree I had was a big one , at chest height I could reach around with both arms and just touch my fingers. Another thing I noticed about them is ,the larger ones always have a thick bed of moss under them, you can be walking around the bush on a hot day on stoney dry ground and you see one of these giving total shade on to a thick green moss carpet, bush luxury , I think many a child would have been conceived under that tree.
Rob.

Originally Posted by rsser

It's not a real cherry though:

http://www.anbg.gov.au/apu/plants/exoccupr.html

Yep, locally we call it Native Cherry Pine.

One of my favourite woods.

Attachment 188157

Largest we get around here is about 12" diam. Going by the rate of growth that I have observed over the last 40 years, reckon the one I'm working through at the moment would have been 200yrs+ old. And, yes, they always have that green moss, at least on the trunk.

PS - will split big time if you don't pre-work it by either green turning or at least sectioning down and sealing.

This is the english cherry I think has a warm look to it. So if yours is anything like this grab it while you can