wood working guys

[robertglines1]

I Have some 60 year old cherry planks 1"by1 1/2" how should I fasten them without damaging them? What about finishing them to get that rich look?

[bevans6]

1" by 1 1/2" is an odd size.  How long are your pieces? what are you planning to do with them?  What are you planning to fasten them to?  Finishing cherry is interesting - it changes colour rapidly when exposed to sunlight, gets dark and rich coloured. 

Brian

[robertglines1]

Planks are about 4 ft long...Planning on using for cabinets or trim on cabinets...tried to hammer nail in piece and it split....that was 10 yrs ago...seems I should use for something?

[Sam 4106]

Hi Robert,
For fastening cabinet face frames together and fastening the face frames to the cabinet boxes I use a Kreg pocket hole jig and glue. For cabinet door rails and stiles I just use glue at the corners and let the panels float.
Good luck, Sam 4106/MC8

[cody]

For cabinet rails it is a little small, if you use overlay style doors it will require around 1 3/4 for the 1/2 inch overlay on each door and the hinges pretty much eat up the extra unless you use an inset door then the 1 1/2 will work, dry cherry is prone to splintering as you already found out, one way to get around that is to use hardwood nails, they are a hardened nail thats thinner, you can put one in a drill and spin in a pilot hole for them or drill and dowel them in place, also kreg screws work well but also have a tendancy to split the wood unless your very careful on the tightening. For a finish, oil works very well on cherry and gives it a deep finish, put a sheepskin polishing bonnet on a drill and spin the finish out after applying the oil with a rag, if you can get the drill fast enough to warm or even heat up the wood you'll sink the oil deeply into the wood and give it an antique patina, tung oil works well for that but requires several coats, the advantage to that is that if you scratch the finish at some future point, a little oil on a cloth rubbed into the wood repairs the scratch.

[robertglines1]

will the cherry plane and mill ok? linseed oil work?

[cody]

Yep, cherry planes and mills great, I used to even use a bridgeport for a lot of the hardwoods, it works great but make sure you dial up the speed on it, and yep it'll work but doesn't dry fast.

[bevans6]

Cherry is known for tough grain and tear-out when planing with an actual plane - sharp blade, small mouth, pay attention to direction.  It's kind of a brittle wood, not all that strong.

I was thinking that if I had what you have I might be tempted to find a project where I could resaw it to about 1/2" and use it for trim around panelling and such.  I did my kitchen cabinets in cherry frames and bright maple fields.  As the cherry ages it gets more dramatic.

Brian

[cody]

I've had excellent luck working with cherry, the key is to use sharp tools and for machining the wood to keep the speed up, but thats the key with any hardwood, for maple or any other tight grained wood like cherry, I won't run a router at less than 25K, oak at 30k, for a planer only a 3 blade, never a two blade unless you can dial the speed up.  Watch the grain direction as with any wood. Always leave room for a finishing pass thats going to be a very thin cut.

[bevans6]

What speed do you run your Stanley No 4 at?



Brian

[cody]

I cheat, I sprang for the power tools lol, about 30 years ago.

[bevans6]

I still pull out my grand-dad's 1902 Stanley #4 whenever I need to smooth or shape a bit of wood.  I have at least 15 solid user hand planes.  when I make a table, I usually glue up the top and then it's typically 6 to 8 feet long by 3' wide, and I smooth them top and bottom with hand planes.  The last table i made was a dining room table made from solid southern yellow pine, 8/4 by 14" planks, all from one tree.  The top had only three planks.  The only metal fasteners in the whole table were 6 screws that held the cleats that kept the top from moving on the base.  It was gorgeous.  I made it for a friend of mine that sadly was critically ill with a brain tumour.  she had it for about a year.

I have the power tools too, but first grab is always a hand plane.  There is usually one in my tool belt...

Brian

[cody]

I'm always eager to learn from others.  Wood can be so complex at times lol.

[robertglines1]

 Thanks guys....right now my island cabinet is pretty sad in appearance. This is a hobby for me and a learning experience,now is the time to learn the finer part of wood working. expect more questions;some will seem basic to experienced wood specialist...those questions will be educational to me and others..now for computer skills (no hope there)

[cody]

I thought your island looked pretty good, what all are you changing on it.  If you keep adding things and changing things around it'll turn into a prevo.