Do you have cherry trees in your yard or in larger tracts of land? So I strongly encourage you to make note of their locations and do a monthly walk around their condition first. I doubt many of you need to be told that cherry hardwood holds value.
Cherry trees I do not advocate for profit on the road. They live, they grow, they adorn lawns or farms every year, if not they also care for sweet pies.
However, the monthly walk around is to check dead trees from the weather, branches in need of pruning or dying trees. If a tree comes down, either by human intention, or by the hand of Mother Nature, save what you can.
Cherry is my big favorite in woodturning. If pushed to it, I’d say it’s my favorite of all time. I love that you turn to many other hardy trees, such as Maple, Nuts, Burls, Yew, Myrtle, Ash, other tropicals, and many others. However, when all is said and done, the cherry tree holds my heart stubbornly. The great texture, like a dream works, fills the shop with the scent of maraschino cherries when it is turned wetand looks so beautiful as it darkens beautifully with age. “Veinous resin” Cherry wood can be very visible, with fine lines of black hardened, black resin in the grain. Cherry Burl? Yummy stuff indeed, very beautiful.
You’ll be amazed at the bowls, containers, and lids that woodworkers can make from relatively small trees.
At the risk of repeating myself again, I am not in charge of tearing down trees for fun and profit. What I am going to show is the nature of the dormant, natural value of support, for lack of a better way, if the tree in question will come down in any way.
In the case of natural causes, you will want to investigate your problem with Cherry, and understand if it can be reversed. This is to prevent tarring up raw, broken branches or wound lightning. Do not leave raw wood exposed to physical trauma from the elements. In diseases called in the specialty tree to deal with the issue.
Your reward will be the cherry a tree that lives and grows every year.
But if Mother Nature has taken your Cherry Tree to the great orchard in the sky, whatever it is, now is the time to preserve the tree and the wonderful wood within. If you allow a wild cherry tree to remain terminal for several seasons, it will likely end up rotting and suffer severe damage.
On the smaller Cherry Tree, don’t let go! Look for a local lumber yard in your area and send your inquiry by e-mail or make a phone. Let them have limbs in trucks, chains in hand, to take the cherry tree for you. To meet them as an indictment. My plan would be to deal with a smaller Cherry tree for one or more elements made from the tree in the solution.
If the cherry tree is bigger, be sure to change something. The trick here is to calculate the estimated board feet of lumber from the Cherry Tree taking into account problematic factors such as metal inlays and rotting wood.
Here are some general thoughts as directions;
Most sawmills look for tracks in the woods like a log from many planks of wood yielding.
Most sawmills (generally speaking) will turn their noses up at a “yard tree,” or wood in an open, public area, because of the likelihood of embedded metal such as nails or wire.
The overall condition of a cherry tree will depend on how many feet of board can be collected.
1) Estimate the number of board feet (potential) in the Cherry tree;
Use this link for the board feet calculator and follow the instructions. It’s a simple diameter vs. length spread sheet log that calculates the resulting board feet. The chart is based on a circular kerf saw mill. Band saw mills have a smaller kerf (a thinner image), so the yield is slightly higher.
International ¼” s saw blade chart volume log
2) evaluate:
Call some local lumberyards and/or check cherry wood prices on the Internet. This gives you a general idea of the potential of the cherry wood in your cherry tree.
3) Locating Sawyer wanting to take the Cherry tree, he saw it drying in the bushes, etc.
This is where you will need to input and make calls. You will need to discuss all applicable fees, which typically relate to seating costs, iron charges if metal is struck, travel/suspension, and drying costs. If you are hiring a sawmill, make sure you know all the costs with your mills.
By simply picking numbers out of thin air, let’s say that your cherry tree yielded three hundred bd. ft. At (guess) $7 a board foot x 300 bd. ft., which totaled $2,100. Then subtract the costs incurred from the milling operation (cutting and drying costs), to get a net of about $1,500. Assuming the cherry tree was full of clean wood, it doesn’t have problems like metal.
But you still have a point. Even if you netted $500, you’d be ahead of the game and not going to spoil the most valuable Cherry Tree destined to come down the tree.
4) Sell your wood.
Is the sawyer buying cherry trees from you? Do you deliver dry wood? Are the manufacturers buy furniture directly to you? Do you give it to Uncle Bob to make a cherry wood cabinet?
And when all is said and done, if the cherry tree is bigger and you can’t get a sawyer willing to mill the wood for you, call your local woodturning club anyway. They may have the resources and people available to bring down a larger Cherry tree. No stakes are wise, but they can’t hurt. Not the timbers of the deal, but some magnificent timbers if you treat them well. Make no mistake, the 24″ + Diameter Cherry Salad Bowl is an eye catcher.
But your reward is the preservation and use of wonderful material, which would otherwise be wasted.
Sources:
Jacqueline Cross, suite101.com, “How to Grow a Cherry Tree, Nov 25, 2008
Rob Russell-Moderator-Sawmill Creek Woodworkers Forums, “How Much for a Cherry Tree”, July 16, 2003
