Pin Cherry Challenge

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spnemo

spnemo

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Aug 21, 2010
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Tustin, MI
Pin Cherry is one of my favorite woods to turn. It is a dense wood that rarely chips or breaks when turning. It shines up nicely and looks great with a CA finish. Best of all, I have a ton of it!

A couple of years ago I had to cut down a medium sized tree in my back yard. Now I have about 100 pre cut pen blanks and a pile of pin cherry chunks (limbs and small diameter trunk).

I would like to share the joy of turning this wood by sponsoring a contest! However, I have never done anything like this so, I need some suggestions on the rules for the contest. I think it would be fun to have a bunch of pens all turned from the same tree. I provide the wood and you pay the shipping.

Right now most of my blanks are 3/4" square by 5 1/2" long. I have some shorter and I could make custom sized blanks.

What do you think? Are you interested or is it a dumb idea? If interested, what rules would make it fair?
 
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bensoelberg

bensoelberg

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Aug 19, 2010
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Bakersfield, California
I'm interested. Perhaps you could sponsor a Pin Cherry Pith. All participants would use the same wood, but try to customize it in some unique way, then trade pens with someone else.
 
H

hebertjo

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Apr 28, 2008
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Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Can you post some pictures of this wood and/or finished pens? I do not know what it looks like??? Any interesting figure? Color?

I would be interested in joining in.
 
olsonrdh2

olsonrdh2

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Dec 11, 2009
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Idaho
sounds great

born and raised in Monroe MI I know of the tree but at that time we were building bird houses with my dad from pine we bought from Builders Square. Sounds like a lot of fun, I too enjoy working with cherry.
 
mredburn

mredburn

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Pass it by Mike Broberg if you decide to have a go at it. It falls under his jurisdiction.
 
spnemo

spnemo

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Tustin, MI
According to Mike Broberg, I will have to wait until after February to do a contest or PITH. So, once I have the rules and get his Mike's okay, we can get started!

I only have one pin cherry pen left (the rest all sold before I could get pictures). I will try one or two more and take some pictures before the contest.
 
1

1080Wayne

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Feb 5, 2006
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Brownfield, Alberta, Canada.
Sean

I`ll put my pincherry up against yours any day ! You say a hard, dense wood . That sounds more like chokecherry to me . My pincherry would tend to be a bit softer than black cherry whereas chokecherry is harder , more like Saskatoon , if you are familiar with that . But your growing conditions are much different than mine , and that will make some difference . Will see what I can do about making some pens showing the diversity of the wood .

What I really like about both pincherry and chokecherry is the occasional piece with a maraschino smell .

Wayne
 
spnemo

spnemo

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Tustin, MI
1080Wayne said:
Sean

I`ll put my pincherry up against yours any day ! You say a hard, dense wood . That sounds more like chokecherry to me . My pincherry would tend to be a bit softer than black cherry whereas chokecherry is harder , more like Saskatoon , if you are familiar with that . But your growing conditions are much different than mine , and that will make some difference . Will see what I can do about making some pens showing the diversity of the wood .

What I really like about both pincherry and chokecherry is the occasional piece with a maraschino smell .

Wayne
Click to expand...

Around here Pin Cherry and Choke Cherry are the same thing but it is most often referred to as Pin Cherry. It is a very large tree (30 to 40 feet tall) with very small bitter fruit. It grows wild in this area. I have looked at guides to identifying trees in Michigan. according to the guides, a pin cherry and choke cherry are very small trees or shrubs and a black cherry has fruit that turns deep purple. These descriptions do not fit my trees. The locals call them wild Pin Cherry, so that I what I am calling them.
 
Last edited:
1

1080Wayne

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Feb 5, 2006
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3,344
Location
Brownfield, Alberta, Canada.
spnemo said:
1080Wayne said:
Sean

I`ll put my pincherry up against yours any day ! You say a hard, dense wood . That sounds more like chokecherry to me . My pincherry would tend to be a bit softer than black cherry whereas chokecherry is harder , more like Saskatoon , if you are familiar with that . But your growing conditions are much different than mine , and that will make some difference . Will see what I can do about making some pens showing the diversity of the wood .

What I really like about both pincherry and chokecherry is the occasional piece with a maraschino smell .

Wayne
Click to expand...

Around here Pin Cherry and Choke Cherry are the same thing but it is most often referred to as Pin Cherry. It is a very large tree (30 to 40 feet tall) with very small bitter fruit. It grows wild in this area. I have looked at guides to identifying trees in Michigan. according to the guides, a pin cherry and choke cherry are very small trees or shrubs and a black cherry has fruit that turns deep purple. These descriptions do not fit my trees. The locals call them wild Pin Cherry, so that I what I am calling them.
Click to expand...


Sean

The tree height could be either in your area , with pincherry at the high end and chokecherry the low . Pincherry tends to a fairly straight trunk , chokecherry inclined , crooked and twisted . Apart from the cherry (sour , bright red for pincherry in open clusters of 4-7 ; very astringent but sweet , yellow to crimson to purplish black for chokecherry in a dense elongated cluster of 8-12 fruits ) , the bark is the easiest way to distinguish them . Pincherry bark has very conspicuous horizontal , orange lenticels which can be over an inch long , and the mature bark fairly easily separates into layers , almost like paper birch . Chokecherry bark is darker , much tighter held , with no horizontal extension of the lenticels .

Excellent pictures and full descriptions in `Trees of the Northern U S and Canada` by John Laird Farrar , available from Amazon or elsewhere .

Wayne
 
spnemo

spnemo

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Aug 21, 2010
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Tustin, MI
Wayne,

It sounds like chokecherry is a better fit for what we have. As I said, the locals around here (mills included) call it pin cherry or choke cherry. I guess we don't really have a true pin cherry in this area. I think my height estimate was a little low. I got 30 feet of good trunk out of the one I cut down. The total height of the tree was probably closer to 50 feet. I have one on my property with a large burl right at ground level. I am trying to resist the urge to cut it out.

Thanks for the clarification.
Sean
 
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