I finished 9 pages of scaled, detailed drawings for my tall case (72″ high) cherry dresser yesterday.  Today I planed about 100 board feet of my clear, air-dried cherry lumber.  Current retail price for American Black Cherry lumber is approx. $7.00 per board foot; up to $10.00 per board foot for extra wide.  [one board foot = 12″ by 12″ by 1″ thick]  The widest boards are 13 inches wide and all are planed, both sides, to a finished dimension of 7/8ths inch thick.     So although I paid $1.00 per board foot for rough cut lumber direct from the West Virginia saw mill years ago, the present value of the boards in these two pictures is well over $1,000.  After planing the lumber, I then mapped out what parts of the dresser will come from which boards.  While all the casework will be cherry, the drawer sides/backs will be hand dovetailed, solid white oak, and I will custom make the pulls from pure black, African ebony.  By the time I’m finished, I expect to have upwards of 120 hours labor in the finished piece, and although I will never sell it, the retail value would be in the $4,000~$6,000 range depending on the market.

After a hiatus, I’m back to the plans for my cherry dresser.  I now have a pretty clear idea of the overall form and I’m closing in on dimensions.