Prunus serotina
Black Cherry
The cabinet-maker's favourite. Easy to machine, ages beautifully into a deep reddish-brown.
- Cultivada fuera de Europa e importada a través de almacenes europeos.
- Grupo botánico. Las maderas blandas proceden de coníferas y las duras, de árboles frondosos.
- Familia botánica a la que pertenece la especie.
Avísame cuando llegueEspecie de referencia. Ahora mismo no hay piezas en stock.
¿Es adecuada para tu proyecto?
Ideal para
- Kitchen and dining tables
- Cabinet doors and fronts
- Chairs and benches
- Wall panelling and built-ins
- Turned bowls and small objects
- Interior joinery
No hay Black Cherry en la selección actual
Especies similares en stock
Ahora mismo no hay Black Cherry. Estas especies sirven para los mismos proyectos y tienen piezas disponibles.
Recibe avisos sobre Black Cherry
Te enviamos un correo cuando lleguen a KORENA nuevas tablas de Black Cherry. Cada pieza es única, por lo que conviene enterarse pronto.
Aspecto de la madera
Qué aspecto tiene
Fine, mostly straight grain with a smooth, even texture. Plain-sawn boards show a soft, flowing figure; quarter-sawn faces are calmer. Small gum pockets and pin knots are common and accepted as part of the look. Fresh-cut wood is pinkish-tan and lighter than buyers expect.
- Fresh-cut: pinkish-tan to pale salmon, lighter than most buyers expect
- After a few weeks of light: shifts to warm amber
- After 6–12 months: deep reddish-brown, the classic cherry tone
- Sapwood stays pale cream and does not darken at the same rate
- Light exposure is uneven, anything covered (rugs, books, lamps) leaves a lighter ghost on the surface for months
- Fine straight grain, smooth texture; warms with age.
Cómo trabajarla
Cómo trabajarla
One of the most forgiving hardwoods to machine. Saws, planes and sands beautifully with sharp tooling. Turns and carves well. Glues and screws without drama, though it's softer than European cherry so pre-drill near edges. Steam-bending is workable but not a strength.
Acabado
Sands to a glassy surface with little effort. Takes oils, hard-wax oils, shellac and waterborne finishes cleanly. Stains can blotch on flat-sawn faces. Use a washcoat or gel stain if you're matching a tone. Most makers skip stain entirely and let the wood do the work, because it darkens on its own.
Secado
Dries at a moderate rate with a mild tendency to warp and surface-check if pushed. Tangential shrinkage (6.5–8.0%) is roughly twice radial, so flat-sawn wide stock moves more than quarter-sawn. Sticker carefully and let kiln-dried slabs acclimatise in the workshop before flattening.
¿Cuánto se moverá?
La madera se hincha y se contrae a lo ancho cuando el aire gana o pierde humedad. Calcula el movimiento estacional de un tablero de Black Cherry antes de diseñar las fijaciones.
Movimiento estacional previsto
unos 8,3 mm
Fija el tablero con lengüetas o soportes ranurados, no con cola ni tornillos apretados.
Modelo de contracción lineal: ancho × (contracción ÷ 28 % de saturación de la fibra) × variación estacional de humedad. Usa una contracción tangencial del 7,25 % para Black Cherry. Es una estimación para planificar, no una garantía.
Cuánto cuesta
Seguridad y abastecimiento
- Cultivada fuera de Europa e importada a través de almacenes europeos.
- Estado en la Lista Roja de la UICN: evaluación mundial de conservación de esta especie.
Food-contact safe once finished, which is why it's a long-standing choice for kitchen and dining work. Cherry dust is a known irritant and some woodworkers develop sensitisation over time. Run extraction and wear a mask when sanding.
Leer la guía completaNotas detalladas sobre el dibujo, el cambio de color, el trabajo y la estabilidad.
What Black Cherry actually is#
Prunus serotina is the American counterpart to European cherry, and it is the more practical of the two for large work.
Both species darken dramatically, both have the same satiny fine grain, and both are excellent to work. The difference is supply. Black cherry is grown as a forestry species across eastern North America, so it arrives in larger, straighter, more consistent sizes. European cherry is often salvaged from orchards and gardens, and matched wide boards are correspondingly harder to find.
If a project needs several wide boards that look like each other, black cherry is the easier answer.
The darkening#
This is the defining property of both cherries and it needs planning for.
Fresh black cherry is pale pinkish tan. Within six months of light exposure it has moved most of the way to a rich reddish brown, and it continues deepening more slowly for years.
Three consequences follow. Do not choose stock on its current colour, because it is a stage rather than a result. Do not leave objects sitting on a new cherry surface, because uneven exposure prints permanently lighter patches that take months to even out. And do not expect a UV inhibiting finish to hold the pale fresh colour, because it slows the change without preventing it.
The stability advantage
Preguntas de compradores
Preguntas de compradores
Does Black Cherry darken like European Cherry?
Yes, dramatically and in the same way. Fresh stock is pale pinkish tan and deepens to a rich reddish brown within a year of light exposure, with most of the change in the first six months. Uneven light exposure leaves permanent lighter patches under anything left in place, so let a new piece darken evenly before placing objects on it.
How does it compare with European Cherry?
Softer at 4,226 N against 5,120 N and slightly less dense at 560 against 600 kg per cubic metre. The main practical difference is supply: black cherry is grown as a forestry species in eastern North America and comes in larger, straighter, more consistent sizes, so matched wide boards are much easier to source than in European cherry.
Why does it burn so easily?
Cherry scorches readily under routers and dull blades, and the marks are dark and obvious on pale wood. Its fine close grain and moderate density concentrate heat at the cutting edge. Sharp tooling, correct feed rates and light final passes prevent it. Burns must be cut or scraped out rather than sanded, which usually just polishes them in.
Is it stable enough for a wide tabletop?
Propiedades mecánicas
Datos técnicos
Valores de referencia publicados. Cuando las fuentes discrepan, se muestra el intervalo y se usa el valor habitual en las escalas anteriores.
| Densidad (kg/m³)Masa por metro cúbico con aproximadamente un 12 % de humedad. La madera más pesada suele ser más dura y resistente. | 500–620 kg/m³habitual: 560 kg/m³ |
|---|---|
| Dureza Janka (N)Fuerza necesaria para hundir una bola de acero hasta la mitad en la madera. Es la medida estándar de resistencia a las abolladuras. | 3,800–4,500 Nhabitual: 4226 N |
| MOR: módulo de rotura (MPa)Resistencia a la flexión: la carga a la que se rompe una viga. | 80–95 MPa |
| MOE: módulo de elasticidad (GPa)Rigidez a la flexión: cuánto se comba un estante o tablero bajo carga. | 9.5–11.0 GPa |
| Contracción radialContracción perpendicular a los anillos de crecimiento, desde verde hasta completamente seca. Es la que afecta a las tablas aserradas radialmente. | 3.5–4.5 % |
