pitch pockets in cherry

Returning to working with wood after 20 years ago in Junior High, I've hacked together a few cabinets for the wife and some small craft items for her. Recently I've been finishing a pedestal bed with drawers underneath.

Next project will be the complete construction of a old style cherry paneled library in my "office" basement room. A built in of file drawers and a curio are fist on my list.

My long distance lumber supplier has warned me his common will have a fair number of pitch pockets, I was wondering what long term effect do I need to worry about with pitch pockets? Does one need to fill them all or ignore them if you're not obsessed with a perfectly flat board on the wall.

The local lumber supplier has Cherry at 7.50 a foot and there are still 3-5 pitch pockets every board ft. I examined a piece a couple of days ago at 7'x12" pretty clear with a small knot on most of it, but at about 7 feet exact center was a large missing knot about an 1" wide. NO sapwood, no bark. Roughly which grade would that type of board be?

Alan

How long was the board in total? To go into detail on all of the variables for each lumber grade would take more time and effort than you could ever imagine.

To make FAS grade a board must measure 8' in length and minimum of 6" wide at the time of cutting. Shrinkage rates are not factored into the grading so it can measure less in width after drying. There must be at least one 83% clear cutting from the board (basically). Again there are so many variables within each species that the NHLA Grading Standards that it is a nightmare to comprehend. Buy what suits your needs, eyes and pocket book :-) And yes pitch pockets are often a part of Cherry and not a grading defect unless in excessive amounts. It really depends upon the part of the country that the Cherry comes from as too its degree of pitch pockets too. We hardly ever get Cherry with any significant amount of pitch pockets :-)