Steamed cherry?

The steaming is done to give the cherry wood a even color across the board. Sap wood in cherry is white in color so the steaming process even the color to the redishbrown tone. Hope this help…Blkcherry

Ahhh, so that is why it is done. It does seen to make the tones more uniform…but I like the variation of un-steamed wood so I guess I’ll have to be careful in selecting what I use.

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

Swiss pear is just pear wood that is steamed. It turns it a pink color.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

The primary reason for steaming is to increase yeild from a log by turning the otherwise unusable white sapwood into “red” lumber. It also makes color more uniform so customers will not pick over a pile to find true heartwood sticks.

The downside, in many people’s opinion, is that it dulls the color also so that natural tone variations are gone and never to come back. The same is true for walnut. I’ll admit I’m a purist and don’t ever used steamed walnut or cherry.

Cherry darkens from both UV light and oxygen, so the redder pile may have also been just sitting their longer – in addition to the steaming.

Ahhh, the increase in yield is why it was started… I could not figure out why they would start steaming wood….but if they were able to sell more of a tree because the colour was more uniform I can see there being an incentive to steam. I’m with you Boardman about not wanting to use steamed wood…I like the variation and tonal range in colour.

GaryK are there many other woods that are steamed? I wonder why it turns pink?

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark