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Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 1:16 am
by CastAxe
I was wondering what a good way would be to finish a cherrywood pipe?

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:08 am
by Dixie_piper
Goin out on a limb, I would think going "au naturale" would look good. Just buff and wax, maybe a spit coat of shellac?
Take my advice with a grain of salt, because that's just a guess.

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:43 am
by KurtHuhn
The thing with cherry is that, barring a heavy coat of varnish or shellac, it's not going to get shiny like briar. It's just not as dense as briar is.

Personally I would would leave it unstained, sand it well, and wax it. Cherry will actually darken and take on a much richer color over time, especially if you set it in sunlight. You could use a light coat of shellac, but it's going to wear off of cherry in no time flat, so I's skip it.

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:00 pm
by CastAxe
Awesome, thank you! With that in mind i should be completely done with my first pipe in a couple of days and ill post some pics so you guys can tell me all the things that i did wrong :P :)
Oh and what kind of wax would work well on a cherry pipe, ive heard that carnauba wax tends to rub off or not stay on cherry wood at all.

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:59 pm
by mathias65
the only problem is .. don't even hold it with dirty hands .. or set it on a dirty surface. the cherry wood is so porous that it will absorb right into it and you'll never get it back out unless you sand again.

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:27 pm
by KurtHuhn
No buffed-on wax is really going to stay on a cherry pipe. Cherry has it's benefits however, so it's worthwhile to use it in some cases. I had a thought earlier today about using beeswax like they do on meerschaum pipes, but I honestly don't know if it would be worth it to do that. It might work, but we won't know until some crazy person actually does it. :lol:

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:06 pm
by CastAxe
I might just be that crazy person, i think im gonna try that seeing as how everything has been an experiment for me up until now, why stop? :mrgreen:

Re: Cherry wood, i know its an old topic but...

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:31 pm
by mathias65
by all means go for it. for all it's problems cherry wood is fun to work with. it looks nice, when it's new, and it smokes well. it's great practice too. i have a whole box of blocks and can guarantee i'll be making more of them in the future.