Using Cherry for ship builds

[Burroak]

That's a beautiful ship

[markjay]

Superb!!!

[Erik W]

That is a gorgeous ship Dave!  And no worries about hijacking the topic.  You're just showing how good cherry can look.   You're using cherry as I had envisioned it, on the lower hull. 

 

I like the look of bare wood enough that I've though if I ever build a ship that would have had a coppered bottom, I'd use a darker wood rather than copper plates to visually separate the below-the-waterline portion from the rest of the hull.

 

Erik

Edited January 27, 2016 by Erik W

[overdale]

 

The general consensus seems to be to be that leaving the planking in its natural state is preferable to paint. In which case I shall leave well enough alone.

 

Dave

 

Absolutely Dave.  At that scale, the variety of wood shades look perfect. It looks totally natural.  Don't do a thing to it!

Edited January 27, 2016 by overdale

[mtaylor]

Dave,

 

I'm going to be a voice not of dissent but of suggestion...   I am one also who thinks it looks great the way it is.  But if you're not happy with it now, you won't be happy with it in 10 years.  If you feel it needs painting, then paint.  You're the Captain and it's your ship.

[Pete38]

i have used cherry for my frame on the Triton cross section and am very pleased with the looks and the way the wood works 

 

 

Very nice wood for a build

[tlevine]

Dave, where's your build log?  Beautiful model.  

[CharlieZardoz]

Hi guys just wanted to add a thought to this topic since I am also thinking of using cherry in Sultana below the wale for a darker contrast.  However I am also considering pear which is also nice as well (with less figure). What I am wondering is how does pear look next to cherry if anyone has done that? I might do a pear keel with cherry planking or perhaps a cherry keel with pear planking or maybe have both pear or both cherry. Tons of possibilities wondered if anyone has tried similar contrasting.

[DaveyJones]

Thanks to everyone for the likes and comments. The’re very much appreciated.

 

Toni,

There is no build log. When I started this model there were already a number of excellent Swans (yours included) under construction by people with far more experience than myself. I felt that I would be just replicating the work of others.

 

Dave

[mtaylor]

Charlie,

 

Those should work well together.   My current build is cherry framing and swiss pear planking (the swiss just isn't a "brown" as regular pear).   I've planked in cherry on my Wasa/Vasa and I think it looks pretty good.  It's aged and when to that deep dark cherry color.  

 

I think it will all depend on the final "look" that you want.

[Mr. Pett]

I used Cherry for the second planking. I ordered american cherry especially, because it is darker than the european. After oiling the wood has a nice red and brown colour.

[JerryGreening]

Not only am I using cherry for my Bonhomme Richard build I use cherry for ornamental carving and furniture work. Overall, Cherry shares many characteristics as pear. It is very workable, carves well, it does have a more pronounced grain then pear and requires some sharp tools when working cross grain. The other benefit of cherry or pear is it's cost, at least in my case. Cherry is much less expensive than pear like 10 times less expensive from what I'm finding on the internet. As others pointed out Cherry is darkens when exposed to light. On my build log I posted a picture of a carving I did in cherry some months ago. It started out as a tan color and now has deepened to a nice deep reddish brown, I like it very much. In my opinion it gives the model a more "antique" or old world look. As far a finishing goes, the smoother you get cherry the shinier it gets. Carving it with sharp tools results in a buffed shiny surface almost a plastic look. Sanding and buffing with steel wool results in an extremely smooth shiny surface with a lot of depth. From there I finish nearly all my cherry projects with Tung oil. Actually, Formsbsy's Tung Oil, which is more of a varnish.

[mischief]

I use cherry veneer .043mm size for my second planking ,cutting strips from the veneer sheet.

Edited February 4, 2016 by mischief

[Bill Tuttle]

Cherry is very nice to work with and easily obtainable in my area.  (VA)  I will warn against one problem with it, do not try to stain it.  It will darken in sunlight within 12 hours or so to a nice color, but it is famous for splotchy staining, although a dye stain will offset some of these problems.  I built a large ship model case out of cherry and learned my lessons the hard way about the staining.  Nice wood to work, fairly inexpensive and readily available.

 

Bill

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Hi Bill,

 

The easy to go  in that case is to seal the wood before with by example shellac which is going to act as a ""surface regulator '' for absorption.

As you say, oil stain is not very good for this job,  but gel stain does not work the same way and you can get more even results by using it.

[Bill Tuttle]

Gaetan,

 

I have used gel stain with pretty decent success as well as shellac as a sanding sealer but just never quite happy on cherry.  Minwax make a wood conditioner that helps on some of these woods also.

 

Bill