Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
A while back, a friend and neighbor from our previous home of twenty years past called and very generously offered some rough cut cherry lumber that he and his wife have been transferring from one domicile to another since the early sixties. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I jumped on the opportunity, only to find what appeared to be approximately ten or so 8 ft boards that had suffered severe bug infestation, some of the exposed sap wood literally crumbling in my hands as I loaded it into my van. My friend asked if I would make a small bookcase from the material for them and keep the rest for myself, only if I had the time…and with no expectation or requirement that I do it.This material was a challenge. Two of the boards were so bad I pretty much tossed them. As a surprise bonus, three of the boards were actually dark walnut. It took me a good year to get around to working with it. Once planed, I was rewarded with mostly curly cherry heartwood of beautiful color, and the walnut, though a bit stained and a bug damaged, to be beautiful as well.The above case is the result. The side panels are standard mortise and tenon rails and stiles with walnut inserts. The rails are dadoed for the shelving, with the shelf tenons slightly smaller then the dadoes to allow for movement. The shelves are attached with screws through the stiles, the screw holes slotted to also allow for wood expansion/contraction, and plugged with 1/2 square walnut plugs. I finished with four coats Minwax tung oil finish and three coats of paste wax.It was truly a pleasure to see my friends faces light up when I delivered the case today. Admittedly, given the tremendous amount of waste, there's not much left for my personal use, but the joy of working with this gorgeous wood was a reward in itself.