I don’t see much cherry but that’s true. As soon as you sink a saw into you know it’s cherry. The staircase and railings in my house were all made from one huge cherry tree. That was a pleasant wood working job. Now when you get a piece that warps on the table saw and burns it stinks. I’ve never figured out why people say burning cherry is a nice aroma. Cut, yes, burn no JMO
I love cherry and would take any I could get. I split with a hydro and don't usually pre-score the bark. I keep a hatchet handy because it can be a minor pain but well worth the effort. Very nice firewood blacktail . One complaint...only one picture of the dog?
Never smoked meat w/ cherry? Even getting a whiff of the smoke out my chimney when burning it for heat is awesome. I can see your point w/ wood working. Cherry "burns" easy if you don't keep feed rate smooth and that may not be pleasant. I haven't used a ton of it to remember the experience.
Zip the bark with the saw. Let it dry as rounds until where you cut the bark curls and gets crunchy, it’ll also start to separate in other spots too . It should pop open when you get to that point. It takes a while but it’s good wood and worth a little time. Frustration found me this trick when we unknowingly got a self loader full of that stuff. Owl
I’ve hand split black cherry that split fine. I had about a cord of choke cherry and it was a b!tch. The sapwood was very stringy. It didn’t burn that great either.