Six months ago I made a cabinet out of curly cherry and was very disappointed by the results. It is pretty, but the curl is much less prominent than I expected; it showed up more as dark patterns then as figure. I posted here, and was told that curly cherry simply didn't show up like curly maple.
A few months ago I made a box out of pomelle bubinga and was also disappointed by the results; finished with BLO like the cherry. Beautiful wood, but not extraordinary. Using the same wood for another project, I found that the bubinga had superb curl when I cleaned it with mineral spirits. I put 7 applications of wipe on poly over the oil on my box and it looks wonderful. The curl is now extraordinary.
So, that has me thinking about the curly cherry. It is a large piece so I can't just play with it, and I don't have any wood from that material to experiment on. If it will bring up the curl (and yes, I have seen curly cherry that looked like good curly maple so I know that my results aren't the best) I am certainly willing to refinish it; but don't want to rec it.
Anyone know about this?