Cherry

cherry face grain	cherry end grain

Cherry is perhaps North America's premier furniture hardwood. It's hard enough and soft enough to be worked easily and satisfyingly, and takes a beautiful finish. Industry has trouble coping with the color variations between trees and between the sapwood and heartwood and so they commit the sin of staining this beautiful wood, totally riuning it. I use mostly curly cherry for my boxes (in veneer form for the panels of inlay banding boxes), and and use cherry endgrain in Amish Quilt, Weathervane, Striped Quilt, and Kings Crown cutting boards.