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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >That surprised me. Was your decision to purchase rather than harvest  
> and process based on time? Yes, I am fully aware of the effort and  
> time involved to take wood from tree to workbench.

Yes, damn it all, it's time that's the culprit.  I've made pieces from 
standing tree to finished article and there's nothing that compares with it.  
And 
air dried is best (for my purposes) but even 5/4 stock needs to dry at least 
two 
years and really six is more like it. I'm trading labor with a couple of 
sawyers with the view of being paid in lumber which I will stick and leave 
for 
five years.  In the mean time all my own harvested wood has been used.  I've 
got 
the cherry, walnut, sycamore, and soft maple trees I desire at my disposal 
but 
not the gumption to fell the trees, get them to the sawyer (or sawyer to the 
logs) and then make adequate shelter for them.

Oh well, my sons are taking somewhat of an interest in the trade and the 
trees are assets on the root as it were.



> 
> >I wish I had more cherry. I bought a pickup load twenty years ago for  
> thirty cents a board foot, rough and raw. Some is still stacked and  
> stickered in the old barn. The best of it, clear, is curing in the  
> form of long, temporary desk and shelf boards. I like old wood.  
> Although old oak can be beyond fun.
> 

Oh, man, twenty year old air dried cherry!  I'm drooling.  Once in a while I 
come across someone, or their uncle or grandfather, who put cherry or some 
equally useable wood away in the barn decades ago and they are just around to 
disposing of it.  They usually know what it's worth but I am glad to pay it 
for 
the genuine article.

Old oak is like working cast iron.  In the other corner of the room are three 
pieces I make of very hard maple.  Mistake, that.  I dulled every tool ten 
times working the wood and the end product is too heavy and the glue joints 
never took hold in the very dense wood.  What was I thinking??

I did the rough milling on enough black walnut for three more pieces today.  
The resawing (with a power saw, I'm really becoming a wimp) threw up enough 
fine dust to just about choke me to death.  Only hand tools for the rest of 
this 
project!

What are you going to make with that cherry wood?


James