I went for a walk in the woods yesterday with my daughter "snark" hunting. Well came across a bunch of Black Cherries that had blown over. There are some real nice 12-15" thick 8+' long straight sections. Am going to go in with a saw and some wedges and get me some. I believe they were alive this year and hav'nt been down too long, I believe the wood should still be in good shape.
If they were standing dead and blew over,would the wood still be usable, if they havn't started to rot. Would be a lot of dragging for firewood.

You should be able to tell if the wood is any good when you cut and split it if its still grainy and not spongy feeling. I remember reading somewhere that black cherry is fairly resistant to fungus and insect decay. If thats true then they should be ok.

Well went out and cut some of the cherry. Pics are loading at the moment and I'll post some when they are up on photobucket. Wood looks real good, for the most part. Got one split in half and one stave split from that. Got pretty thin at one end but I should be able to get a bow out of it. It is only a couple of hundred yardfs into the woods but can't get the gator up there so will have to get them out the hard way  :(  May split some into staves and cut some for lumber.

Here are some pics of the blow down and the harvested wood.













These are the leaves that are still on one of the trees.

And here is some of the harvest.

Good lookin' "snarks", razorbak! Looks like you hit black cherry pay dirt.

that is some solid looking wood. Cherry makes some good smoke too for all kinds of meats.

Thanks Kelly. I'll save you a stave for when you get home, if you like. I'm hoping to make a "smikin" bow out of this wood. Might even get a swap bow out of some of it.

If I remember right cherry makes a fast bow. I would be honored to have a NY cherry stave. I did think of a question is this the kind of cherry where you get the bark to back bows. you my have a very good haul if that is the case.

Nice,,, I love the smell of that stuff.

Save me some of that stuff =D

Kelly,
This is black cherry which does not have that kind of bark. PatB is the one to ask about that stuff, he has used it on a few bows. I'm not sure what type of cherry it is. I have heard it will make a real fast bow and am interested in seeing what I can get out of it. I have to do some ready on design, but I think I may have enough to experiment a bit.

I was just wondering if its bark was the type was hoping you might have had a double treasure there.

nope, thats the choke cherry bark you want for backing staves.
i split some black cherry staves up last fall, and they also liked to split off the sides as you go.
in future i will start my splits in the middle and work out.
g'luck

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of starting in the middle of the narrow end and working back to the thick end.
Got the bark off the first one last night and sealed up. I'm excited for this project.

I generally have better luck starting in the center of a smaller log and splitting out to each end. Don't seem to get runoffs that way.

I got 10 good staves out of 3 logs. Started taking the bark off and sealing them up. I am planning a large hot box to try to dry some of them a little quicker. Will also reduce several. Will probably have some to trade in the near future. Will also be looking for successful design options.

Like I said, don't forget to save me one for next summer  

John,
I'll save you a premium stave all dried and ready for some shaving. By the way your bow arrived and it is much better than the first one you got. I fired 50-60 arrows through it and it was quite nice. I will recheck the tiller on it and sand out some of the tool marks. I'll put a nice oil finish on it for you as well.