Cherry wood.

[Hugo]

A young friend asked me for a small hatchet for hanging in a Sheppard's hut he is making.
He mentioned he had a large piece of cherry wood for me, so off I go to his family farm and I came away with these pieces of cherry, and a nice piece of beech to make a chopping block on stilts for when I'm shaping spoons and the like.
Cheers Ben, a nice trade.

 

[robin wood]

That looks pretty gnarly cherry. It moves a lot more than most other timber as it dries so I tend to only use straight clean sections like the top left half of the left hand piece.

 

[tomongoose]

But the knarly bits give you lovely patterns and colours

 

[robin wood]

But the knarly bits give you lovely patterns and colours

There is gnarly that gives nice pattern and colour but is stable and then there is gnarly that is just branches coming out and causes uneven tension and splitting.

 

[mrcharly]

So nice for sculpting but not for treen?