Dimensional cherry lumber is a versatile hardwood, great for all kinds of woodworking projects. Our cherry dimensional lumber boards have consistent texture, warm color tones, and outstanding workability. Whether you’re building shelves, or crafting furniture, cabinets, or fine-turned objects, our black cherry will add class to your woodworking projects.
What You Need to Know About Our Cherry Dimensional Lumber
Cherry wood is known for its reddish-brown color that darkens over time with exposure to ultraviolet light. Cherry wood has a fine, straight grain that gives it a smooth and even texture. It has a similar grain pattern to maple, but dimensional cherry lumber is significantly lighter and easier to work with than maple wood. It has a Janka hardness of 950, so it’s neither very soft nor very hard.
Other Names for Cherry Lumber
The dimensional cherry lumber that we sell at North Castle Hardwoods is produced from genuine American black cherry trees, which have the scientific name Prunus Serotina. We do not source our lumber from other species, such as wild cherry, chokecherry, or European cherry.
Hardwood logs have sapwood, which grows around the outer diameter of the log, and heartwood, which grows in the interior. Cherry dimensional lumber is produced mainly from the heartwood of the tree. The sapwood has a cream color that's lighter than the signature red of cherry heartwood.
Where We Source Our Cherry Lumber
At North Castle Hardwoods, we aren’t just selective about the species from which we produce our wood– we are selective about the specific growing region where they came from. Growing conditions in different areas of the country produce logs with different qualities, and we’ve found that the best trees for cherry lumber grow in the upper Midwest. Logs from this region have reduced gum spots, although gum and curl character appear occasionally on all cherry wood.
Our dimensional cherry lumber comes exclusively from sustainable forests in the Great Lakes region and is dried and milled locally. We can ship our dimensional black cherry from our Chicago woodshop to anywhere in the United States or Canada.
Common Uses For Cherry Dimensional Lumber
In centuries past, cherry might have been considered “poor man’s mahogany,” but now it is one of the most sought-after North American hardwood species. Luxury furniture manufacturers around the world use American black cherry in their top-tier products – yet cherry can add a comforting, homestyle vibe when used in kitchens as cutting boards, cabinets, and countertop accents.
At North Castle Hardwoods, we S2S (surfaced two sides) dimensional cherry wood in 6/4, 5/4, and 4/4 thicknesses. These boards are the ones you want if you’re building shelves, furniture, cabinets, paneling, or other larger projects. We also offer unique thin stock cherry lumber in thicknesses of 1/2", 1/4", and 1/8". Our dimensional thin stock cherry is ideal for millwork, staircases, veneer, crafts, box-making, sign-making, and boutique creations. If you’re into wood turning, you can use our cherry lumber squares, also known as turning blanks.