Cherry Wood Stocks?

[Zonie]

Has anyone here built a muzzleloader using Cherry wood?
Does it cut, carve and stain about like Maple wood?
Does it show much grain or is it rather plain? ::

 

[wulf]

Zonie...I made a Yager using cherry and thought it not as hard as maple..It was my first use of cherry and didn't really know what to expect. But i thought it to be a bit mushy and my carving didn't come out as good as I would have liked. It machined well and cut and sanded well but I did have a more difficult tyme with carving. I have seen examples made that were very very good..not so much myne. It did stain well and finished up well. Sorry not to send a pic...still haven't sat down to work that out yet. Hope i answered your questions. Next I made a Miquelet pistol and experienced the same mushyness in carving... :results:

 

[swquiro]

Zonie, my experience with cherry is limited to one stock. An accomplished builder (Casteel) did the critical inletting and all metal work and then I did the shaping and finishing, and checkered the wrist. The wood seems a tad softer than the maple that I have worked with, was fairly easy to work , and took checkering very nicely. I used a reddish-brown stain that someone gave me, and the resulting color is very pleasing. In general, cherry is plain compared to maple, but the piece that I have (from my brother's farm) has some attractive feathering in it. I have some e-pics but dont know how to put them on this site. If interested, send me your email address and I will send them to you in a PM.

 

[Leonredbeard]

Zonie,
I have made several stocks with cherry. Mine trunk had layers of hard grain with soft grain between. If your chisels and gouges are sharp enough the inletting and shaping will go very well. I really don't think it would lend itself well to raised relief carving. I have seen a yeager stock carved very nicely. The grain really is not fine enough to carve. I love the look of the grain. I will use it any time I have excuse to do so. You don't need to stain it. Just give it one coat of boiled linseed oil, let it dry for a week or two and then finish with what ever you want. It will look like it is a hundred years old and has a most pleasing color that deepens with age and exposure to sunlight. It attracts attention from the uninitiates.
God bless.
volatpluvia

 

[GobblerKnob]

I can tell you that Cherry is much easier to deal with than maple. I use cherry in my turkey calls and find it very easy to carve.
I use a natural stain, by Minwax, on the finished call. It seems to really bring out whatever figure is present in the wood. I know that stain may not be PC for rifles, but I threw it in there to demonstrate it's a pleasure to work with, all around. :results:
Rick

 

I've only used maple on my stocks.

Cherry is a nice wood but when working it, I found in other projects, it can Burn easier than maple when being machined, staining at times can be a challenge, cherry darkens with age on exposure to sunlight, and cherry sawdust REALLY burns when you get it in your eyes!!
Check out some back issues of Fine Woodworking. They go into some detail on working Cherry.
It is one of the finest cabinet woods.

One of their articles noted that Cherry, unlike Maple, is an understory wood. As the forest matures, understory trees like cherry tend to die out due to loss of light. Also, Cherry contains resins not found in maple which serve as a deterrent ot insect pests but cause the burning of the wood if not machined just right.

And you CAN get curly cherry.