Articles: American Cherry wood

Amongst other popular American timbers we supply such as Canadian Cedar and American Black Walnut. Cherry wood is another high quality American grown timber favoured for its unique and sought after aesthetic, ranging from a reddish brown to a blond colour with a uniform grain and smooth texture.

Known for being one of the best all-round for workability, American cherry is a low stiffness, fine, straight grained timber with medium density and good bending properties, ideal for cutting, carving and moulding.

What is American Cherry used for?

Because of its premier qualities and exceptional workability as a hardwood, American Cherry see’s use mainly within indoor joinery. Ideal for doors, cabinets, furniture, and paneling, its warm colour and fine finish enhances the aesthetics in any home.

Whilst common in residential furnishings and decorations, due to its versatility, it’s also used in more intricate woodworking projects including toys, musical instruments, and smaller more delicate joinery.

What colours work well with Cherry wood?

When used in furniture panelling or cabinetry you have to consider what sort of decor it will fit with. American Cherry timber works great with warm colours and coordinates well with brown, beige, gold and soft reds. If you're making a feature out of the Cherry and you want it to pop, contrasting cool colours work excellently.

Why does Cherry wood darken?

American Cherry only improves with age and whilst lightly coloured with a pink hue when initially sawn and felled, once installed, time darkens the timber into an elegant darker shade of reddish brown sought after by many timber enthusiasts.

American Cherry's History

American Cherry has a history as rich as its aesthetic and has seen use in domestic furniture since the Greek and Roman era and is sometimes referred to as New England Mahogany due to its darkening colour.

Because of its popularity in history, humans have found some more curious and interesting uses for Cherry, such as food smoking, medicine production and even chewing gum!

If you'd like to learn more about American Cherry, check out The Wood Database website, they have tons of information on a variety of timbers right down to the scent of the wood! The American Cherry page (sometimes referred to as Black Cherry) can be found HERE.

Why should I use American Cherry timber?

Putting aside it’s lucrative use cases, the main reason you’re here is to find out why you should use American Cherry over other timbers.

The reasoning is quite simple;

• Aesthetically it’s exceptional, a very clean timber with barely any knots.
• It has a stunning reddish hue which ages into a unique sophisticated darker shade
• It’s a durable wood comparable to red maple in Janka hardness
• It’s a satiny smooth texture with a fine and uniform grain
• Highly resistant to decay and general wear and tear indoors
• Excellent workability with cutting and moulding due to the straight and stable grain

Is American Cherry expensive

All these great qualities would surely mean a hefty price tag? We think you’d be surprised. It strikes a great balance between cost and quality and in at the time of writing this article it sits somewhere in a similar price range of a few other hardwoods just below Sapele and a touch more than American Poplar / Tulipwood, ideal to fit its usecase as a premium stable hardwood in indoor joinery.

Where do I buy American Cherry?

Right here! We offer American Cherry wood online in a variety of products. We find for us, many of our cherry customers are woodworkers looking to fashion some beautiful furniture out of it and so tend to use our Cut to Size and Planed All Round American Cherry pages. We do also offer finished products such as cherry skirting and cherry architrave which work great and go well with variety of colour schemes.