Live edge cherry slabs

[Busysawyer]

I am currently working on grade sawing a decent amount of cherry for a wholesale buyer. He wants everything cut 4/4. All of the logs i will be cutting are my own that I harvested myself. I was planning on keeping about 1k bf of some nice wide boards for our future retail inventory.  While sawing today I had a 40in diameter log that I kept thinking about taking a few live edge slabs from.  Is there any market for live edge cherry slabs? Also is there a retail market for 8/4 boards? I've talked to a couple people locally and they haven't really heard of anyone doing live edge cherry. I know it's not high demand like the walnut slabs but does anyone think I should take a few nice slabs or maybe some nice mantle cuts?

[YellowHammer]

Yes.  
There is a market.  We sell them.  

[Busysawyer]

Thank you YH. What thickness do you move the most of?

[Brad_bb]

Make you both you and the seller understand what 4/4means.  What is the final dimension they need to clean up to when planed?4/4 on my mill via woodmizer's crank would yeild a 7/8" board.  If it needs to finish at 3/4", they you probably want a 1" plus rough sawn board.

[YellowHammer]

I mill cherry to 2 3/8" to yield a 2 inch dried and planed live edge slab.  Cuts must be away from the sapwood, and away from the pith.

[Busysawyer]

Brad, I am cutting 4/4 at 1 1/8 inches which from what other sawyers tell me is industry standard.  Everyone I've talked to tells me they cut 4/4 at the 1 1/8 but depending who you ask they cut 8/4 at 2 1/4 or 2 3/8 inches. They only want 4/4 on this order but told me in the future if they order 8/4 to cut it 2 1/4 inches. The grader who is also the purchaser for the company came out here Monday and measured a bunch of boards and said they were all spot on. He commented that he sees a lot of thick and thin boards from bandmills and said I must have mine dialed in well. I have my alignment set within 1/32 of an inch and my mill cuts extremely accurately.  I have been very happy with the quality of cut this lt 70 is putting out. 
Thanks YH , will do. My dad wants a few for a coffee table and some end tables and I'll cut about a dozen to keep around.

[Lawg Dawg]

Cherry is beautiful, but watch out for the bugs...they love to get under that cherry bark, must be sweet wood

[thecfarm]

 The grader who is also the purchaser for the company came out here Monday and measured a bunch of boards and said they were all spot on. He commented that he sees a lot of thick and thin boards from bandmills and said I must have mine dialed in well.

Careful. Words like that will get you more business. ;D  Good job!!

[petefrom bearswamp]

Yellowhammer how do you make a live edge slab without sapwood in cherry?
I just sold my first slab 2" thick, 12" average width 8' long for 96 bucks, then the buyer wanted it ripped in two and cut to 4' lengths.
go figure.
This was my narrowest one.

[WDH]

Having considerable sapwood only on one face is a recipe for cupping.

[YellowHammer]

Having considerable sapwood only on one face is a recipe for cupping.

The best cherry slabs come from about 1/3 into the log, i.e a couple 4/4 boards deep from the opening face, no sapwood on a face, balanced sapwood on the live edges, well away from the the pith, and generally shallow enough so there are no knots from the deeper heartwood.  I will cut them to 2 3/8" and when they are dry they won't have cup, very little bow and will plane cleanly to 2".

I may only get two or generally no more than four high quality cherry slabs per log.

[WDH]

It makes sense to only go with the best slabs in cherry since it has so many problems, i.e. sapwood cupping and awful pith cracking.  One of the very worst.