Reply by Budmon

The confusion lies in that the wood was described as Cherry when sold – but it is has been in a barn loft for over 30 years – no discernible smell. I went on a site that id’s wood and came to the idea that it could be red maple but the examples on that site did not match that closely – but I am pretty sure that it is not cherry. I’ve had one woodworker suggest that it could be beech but I have reservations about that as well. I probably need to cut and plane another piece to make sure that I didn’t just pick an anomaly as an example. This wood is really pretty and I want to make sure I chose the optimum use for it. I thank all of you for your comments and look forward to a long relationship on this wonderful site

-- Bud, North Carolina