Following on from my previous post. Among my friend’s lumber collection were half a dozen gorgeous old-growth cherry boards. His wife asked if I could use those to make a countertop for her fireside cabinets. The problem was the countertop was really big. Just over 18 feet long, 21″ deep, and 2 1/4″ thick, there was not enough of the cherry to make the countertop without getting creative.
The solution was to resaw the cherry down to 1/8″ thick and the resulting shop-made veneer yielded enough surface area for the entire countertop. Just enough! There was very little that was not used.
Cherry is such a beautiful wood and these boards were even more special than normal. One of the nice things about cherry is that it gets better looking over time, darkening and developing a rich patina over the years.
