Cherry: beauty over time

When we think of heirloom quality, we think of meticulously crafted furniture from hand-selected pieces of wood that have been shaped and molded into the frame of their finished being. While the sum of these efforts should in no way be diminished by the newness of the piece, the true beauty, spirit of the work, and wood will come to fruition years later.

Much of our furniture is crafted from American Black Cherry. Why cherry? First and foremost, it is beautiful. It has color, but that term is far too simple to describe the appeal of sunlight and shadow on a sanded, oiled, and waxed board. The wood has a unique translucency, evoking a reflecting pool rather than a simple mirror. The auburn hues reside not only on the surface but deep within. Although mahogany and walnut come close, no wood can rival the depth and complexity of the cherry’s color and figure. Through the wood’s natural tendencies, aided by times gentle hand and the sunlight’s rays, cherry’s intrinsic wood grain and complexity become heightened.

Left: Freshly cut cherry  Center: Freshly oiled cherry. Right: Cherry aged one month.

When freshly cut or sanded, cherry is tannish pink, and pale. But the wood is rich in resins, particularly prussic acid, which rapidly reacts to both light and oxygen, so cherry achieves in six months the patina that oak or maple acquires only after six decades. As cherry is exposed to sunlight and air, it changes color, shifting from a light salmon to a deep, rich reddish-brown. This transformation begins in as little as six months. Through oxidation and UV exposure, the cherry’s molecular makeup changes how light is reflected, giving the cherry its recognizably rich hue. Cherry’s color comfortably straddles the formal and informal divide. Perhaps, more than any other wood, cherry, when finished with rubbed oil and wax, invites people to touch it.

A love for cherry

We used very little American Black cherry in the early days because the species, Prunus serotina, is not native to Maine. In fact, the only species of the Prunus genus that grows wild here is pin cherry, Prunus pensylvanica, a prolific “weed” tree that only grows a few inches in diameter, which overgrows stone walls and hedgerows and is a favorite food of tent caterpillars. But, in 1979, we decided to create our definitive style and began using black cherry and ash for the spindle members- almost exclusively, and have ever since. The inconvenient truth is that it’s expensive. Every cherry board must be trucked over five hundred miles from Pennslyvania, but it is a choice we have never regretted.

Left: Pin Cherry, which is native to Maine. Center: Dark green denotes the Allegheny Plateau, and light green shows the native area of pin cherry. Right: Black Cherry growing in the Allegheny Plateau.

A highly workable species of wood, cherry machines extraordinarily well as long as one approaches it respectfully. Due to the high concentration of volatile tannins, cherry burns easily, so woodworkers must use sharp tools and remain in constant motion. With other woods, like ash, one can “cheat” in the sanding process, going from coarse grit sandpaper to the final sanding and achieving a perfect polish. Cherry suffers no such shortcuts. One must dutifully progress from 80 to 120 to 180 to 220 to 400 grit; if not, the material will require such vigorous and prolonged sanding to remove scratch marks that it will burn or at least discolor. Cherry is also difficult to steam bend; overheating turns it a singed purple. But these are not insurmountable difficulties. Our tools are sharp, and we diligently take each step to achieve a perfectly sanded piece.

Left: Crescent Six Drawer Dresser in cherry. Right: Craftswoman, Brenda, joins the bottom of the drawer in the Crescent Four Drawer Dresser.

Cherry is stable; once dried, it is even less prone to seasonal movement than black walnut, which many believe is the most stable American hardwood. This stability allows us to make relatively large panels, which is a big plus with our furniture, as we panel the backs of our case pieces to make them as presentable as the fronts. Having an expansion coefficient of ninety-two to one, which means for each unit of measure, it swells in length during the summer humidity, it swells ninety-two units in width. Expressed another way, cherry, like most woods, does not swell in length, but it does in width, hence frame-and-panel constructions. But, that amount of swelling is modest compared to that of other woods.

Adapting more easily than some of the oil-rich hardwoods like teak or open-grained oaks, cherry takes non-membrane finishes well. The use of any finish must always spring from respect for the material. Utilizing these more natural finishes allows the beauty of cherry to deepen and grow even more complex with each passing year.

With rare exceptions, the furniture we produce is made up mostly of American black cherry. Perhaps it is an emotional bond with this wood, ease in workability, or transformative nature that makes it the sole reason it can be found in much of our work. Whatever the reason may be, through time and patience, the art of age brings forth the unfettered disposition of cherry.

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