The Cherry available commercially in the states is "black cherry" and is quite soft. Softer than most maples or walnut. It turns OK but tends to get a but furry if the tools aren't sharp. Craig Craig R. Pierpont Another Era Lutherie www.anotherera.com
timothy motz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Jon, I think the species name is prunus, and it includes plum, cherry, and apricot. However, the qualities of a wood can vary from region to region and tree to tree. The cherry I have access to is a nice wood to work with, but not particularly hard. I don't know if European cherry or wild cherry is different. I'm used to mahogany that is fairly soft, but my local hardwood dealer had some that was quite hard. BTW, I've been told by a cabinetmaker that the dark pockets and veins you see in cherry contain arsenic, so wear a mask when turning it. Tim > > >---- Original Message ---- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: RE: Plumwood >Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 20:52:59 -0500 > >>Michael, >> >>You mention Plum for pegs, I bit the bullet before starting my "from >>scratch" lute and spent the money for David van Edwards CD course. >He has a >>rather good discussion of the various woods, and nicely adds the >North >>American available equivalents as well as he can assess them. He >suggested >>Plum as an alternative for ribs for the first timer, but we don't >have much >>Plum here. Cherry was his suggested N.A. substitute (and I'm using >that). It >>seems they are the same (Plumus s.p.p.) genera (is that the level, I >always >>forget the levels of taxonomy). Would cherry have the same >characteristics >>for pegs as the plum you are using? >> >>Best, Jon >> >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --
