Is cherry wood good for carving?
Choosing wood for carving is very important. Each type of wood has some special properties that will affect the result of your work. And in this blog we want to answer the question: is cherry wood good for carving?
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Is cherry wood good for carving?
Wood carving is an art which is highly fascinating and ideal for modern people. The wood carving is a fine art of cutting wood with a knife in one hand and a chisel in another, which concludes into the fascinating wooden figure, which is also to be known as a figurine.
With time, people are getting immensely inclined towards authentic and raw art, which helps create an essence of authenticity in the interior. If you are practicing wood carving, then you need to look over specific content such as the wood you are using for carving.
Cherry wood is great for chip carving or even chainsaw carving. However, if you plan on using this lumber for whittling, your carving tool is going to find it tough to pierce into the grain – especially if that cherry timber has dried through.
But, wild cherry wood isn’t the best choice for whittling. Still, it is a nice wood to use for intricate carving methods (such as relief carving) as it can hold onto detail incredibly well.
With time, people are getting immensely inclined towards authentic and raw art, which helps create an essence of authenticity in the interior. If you are practicing wood carving, then you need to look over specific content such as the wood you are using for carving.
Cherry wood is great for chip carving or even chainsaw carving. However, if you plan on using this lumber for whittling, your carving tool is going to find it tough to pierce into the grain – especially if that cherry timber has dried through.
But, wild cherry wood isn’t the best choice for whittling. Still, it is a nice wood to use for intricate carving methods (such as relief carving) as it can hold onto detail incredibly well.
Is cherry wood good for carving?
Yes, especially if you are working with green Wild Cherry wood.
Freshly cut wood – also referred to as ‘green wood’ – is wood that has been newly cut from a tree.
At that point, green wood has a moisture content of 100%, which means that it should be fairly easy to cut into and carve.
As the water inside green wood evaporates, its moisture content falls. And when cherry woods moisture content falls down to below 20%, it can become prone to shrinkage.
If wood dries out too quickly, it will shrink quickly too and can cause the wood to crack and split.
Freshly cut wood – also referred to as ‘green wood’ – is wood that has been newly cut from a tree.
At that point, green wood has a moisture content of 100%, which means that it should be fairly easy to cut into and carve.
As the water inside green wood evaporates, its moisture content falls. And when cherry woods moisture content falls down to below 20%, it can become prone to shrinkage.
If wood dries out too quickly, it will shrink quickly too and can cause the wood to crack and split.
Cherry is the optimal wood for carving
Classic color
Indeed, the cherry is the optimal good for carving as it is hardwood, which offers you the perfect color of the wood and doesn’t get ruined easily with moisture or other components. The hard material is good for the astonishing and aesthetic wood figure, but it is a pretty hard job to cut the cheery wood carving it for the wood figure.
Using a softer wood for carving is undoubtedly a pretty good choice for the procedure, but it is not reliable for a prolonged duration.
Using a softer wood for carving is undoubtedly a pretty good choice for the procedure, but it is not reliable for a prolonged duration.
Even and hardwood
Cherry is hard, which makes it expensive as well and allows it to be worthy for a better time. Also, as the wood is hard so there are lesser holes or any other uneven spaces within the wooden blog due to which it is easy to shape into your imagination as it is even and proper for carving projects for cherry wood cutting.
Defined structure
The defined structure trait of the cherry wood allows the carving artist to form a stable and aesthetic structure that will not break easily unlike other wood where a little stress over the wood can cause harm to the structure.
Easy to mold
Even if the cherry wood is hard but still if making use of the optimal sharp tools, then one can easily mould and shape the wood into the desired figure and allow to create a beautifying masterpiece out of it.
Well, these were some of the quality traits of the cherry wood, which acclaims that cherry wood is reliable for wood carving.
Well, these were some of the quality traits of the cherry wood, which acclaims that cherry wood is reliable for wood carving.
Does cherry wood tend to crack?
The answer to this boils down to which part of cherry wood lumber you’re using.
Tree trunks are made of 5 key parts; the outer bark, inner bark, cambium, sapwood, and lastly heartwood.
Cherry sapwood (the outer most pale portion of the trunk) tends to crack as it dries. This part of the tree has the greatest buildup of moisture. So as that moisture evaporates, the sapwood shrinks and inevitably cracks.
Cherry heartwood (the center most core part of its tree trunk) doesn’t take on moisture as easily. This part of the tree trunk has less moisture. So it doesn’t shrink or crack that much as it dries.
If you are carving into pure cherry heartwood, cherry is less likely to crack as it dries out.
But, if you are carving into sapwood, cherry is more likely to crack as it dries out.
Even if there is heartwood at the center of that sapwood lumber, if the sapwood cracks it can still end up splitting the heartwood too.
Tree trunks are made of 5 key parts; the outer bark, inner bark, cambium, sapwood, and lastly heartwood.
Cherry sapwood (the outer most pale portion of the trunk) tends to crack as it dries. This part of the tree has the greatest buildup of moisture. So as that moisture evaporates, the sapwood shrinks and inevitably cracks.
Cherry heartwood (the center most core part of its tree trunk) doesn’t take on moisture as easily. This part of the tree trunk has less moisture. So it doesn’t shrink or crack that much as it dries.
If you are carving into pure cherry heartwood, cherry is less likely to crack as it dries out.
But, if you are carving into sapwood, cherry is more likely to crack as it dries out.
Even if there is heartwood at the center of that sapwood lumber, if the sapwood cracks it can still end up splitting the heartwood too.
How to keep cherry wood from cracking?
Ideally, the way around this is to just work with cherry heartwood. Avoid using cherry sapwood for woodworking or wood carving.
You can easily tell the two apart as the sapwood section of the trunk is lighter than heartwood.
You can also reduce the chances of cracking by allowing cherry wood to dry slowly.
This involves letting cherry wood air-dry naturally (rather than trying to speed up the process through kiln-drying or by using denatured alcohol).
In warm low-humidity weather, this process can take up to 60 days (or longer if you are dealing with thicker slabs).
You can easily tell the two apart as the sapwood section of the trunk is lighter than heartwood.
You can also reduce the chances of cracking by allowing cherry wood to dry slowly.
This involves letting cherry wood air-dry naturally (rather than trying to speed up the process through kiln-drying or by using denatured alcohol).
In warm low-humidity weather, this process can take up to 60 days (or longer if you are dealing with thicker slabs).
Is cherry wood good for spoon carving?
Trees that bear edible fruit tend to produce lumber that is also food safe. So just like Black Walnut, and Soft Maple, Cherry Wood is a food safe wood that can be used to create kitchen utensils such as spoons and cutting boards.
How to protect cherry wood?
A great way to seal, protect, and finish off a cherry wood project is to use a natural oil finish.
A few coats of an all-natural linseed oil or tung oil coat will do in a pinch. Especially as these oil finishes can happily sink into the dense small pores found in cherry wood.
A few coats of an all-natural linseed oil or tung oil coat will do in a pinch. Especially as these oil finishes can happily sink into the dense small pores found in cherry wood.
