Raw wood to handle

Agent_H said:
. . .
What should I expect from a wood like this as far as oil/finish? My inclination is to just use BLO/spirits like normal. If it is a cherry of some sort what should I expect from BLO or a stain compared to hickory?
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My favorite is BLO + Turps or MS. IMHO nothing "pops" wood grain like it does. I avoid stains mostly because I like the look of natural wood and if you don't get the right stain for a particular wood type and/or don't know what you are doing you are asking for a mess.

BLO on a Black Cherry and Black Walnut platter:




For comparison, here is a saw tote I made out of Black Cherry for a friend. He finished it with stain and lacquer:




I did this with Black Cherry and only BLO. This is after about three years:




Bob
 
Seriously. That platter is super cool. The rich color of the wood in that last picture is impressive.
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
Whats the latin name of that cherry wood? Because I'm starting my search once I know its name. A lot of stuff is called differently over here! I really like the color of the last picture!

Edit: Never mind: Prunus Serotina. We call it Vogelkers (Birdcherry) Have seen a couple in the vicinity!
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Prunus serotina is Black Cherry. These are highly desirable for making furniture, cupboard doors etc. because they're relatively common eastern north American trees that get to a large size (25-30 m) and produce knot-free long wide boards. The wood featured at the beginning of the thread is a smaller species (possibly P. pensylvanica, known as Pin Cherry, or perhaps P. virginiana, Chokecherry) with very little commercial value because of it's diminished size. The canoe paddles featured earlier in this thread are Black Cherry of southern (Pennsylvania?) origin because the growth rings have greater separation (supposedly stronger and more flexible) on southern trees than on slower growing northern trees.
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
Luckily they planted them from the 1920's on here as well!. Although I must say: Not nearly as large as yours, but still usable for handle wood!
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A mature tree (25 years and up) will have soot coloured and very distinctive bark. My botany professor always referred to it as "cornflake" . rjdankert in post #58 in this thread shows a picture of typical bark.
 
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Good or bad I have been oiling the handle, rubbing to almost dry, and then leaving in the sun – it is definitely turning a richer/darker color. It’s not Hickory.

I’m thinking a long/thin crosswedge with some heavy flair at the end made out of some Cherry that looks more like Bob’s expert example when wet.

Cherry Flavored Kemi by Agent Hierarchy, on Flickr


Cherry Flavored Kemi by Agent Hierarchy, on Flickr

Just making axe talk.
 
I don't think I want to make it darker. The idea that it is just the wood with oil is more appealing - There are at least several more handles' worth of it here to play with.

When it gets hung and used it will look different yet I suppose. ;)
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
I like it! Although I must say that it probably isn't cherry, because I believe that it usually turns that red-ish color directly? Could it actually be wallnut? Did the bark have a rough surface (light grey-ish), with really green leaves with light green vanes in the leaves? And last but not least egglike type of fruit? I made the mistace ones when I though that was a plum tree, because thats what it looked like to me?
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Naw, it's cherry alright. Based on the original post, it was a very small tree, so the bulk of it is sapwood, and from the grain I would bet it's not the variety usually seen as lumber wood. The bark in the OP pictures is also what I remember cherry looking like, though it has been 30 years or more since I've seen one.

Curious why synthetic oil would damage the wood? I would stick to drying oils anyway, that remark just piqued my curiosity.

Best way to darken cherry is a mild base like ammonia or dilute lye, followed by linseed oil and an afternoon in the sun. For a while here I had a couple barrels of lime plaster sitting around - the water from those was good for darkening wood, but not so good that I'd keep it around if I didn't need the plaster!
 
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