How Cherry Corbels are Made
A corbel is a type of bracket used to carry the weight of an object above. This could be an overhanging countertop, a beam, mantel, or possibly a wall cabinet. Corbels don’t have to be used to carry weight; sometimes a corbel is used simply for decoration. The corbel seen here is an example of a corbel used for decoration because of the shallow depth.
A cherry corbel is one made from cherry wood. Typically corbels are not made from a solid block of lumber, but from pieces of lumber glued together. Cherry corbels are made from strips of cherry glued together alternating the direction of the growth rings to ensure stability of the corbel. The glued block is then cut by hand or a CNC machine; most corbels sold today are fabricated on a CNC machine. Corbels made from other species of wood (ex: maple or rubberwood) can be stained with a cherry color stain & made to look like cherry, but they would still be missing the characteristics of actual cherry wood. Cherry wood has a warm red tone and the grain typically has well defined cathedrals, when the grain comes to a point like an inverted “V”. Corbels are available in a multitude of styles and sizes. When ordering a corbel the width, the height, and the depth must all be measured or known to ensure the correct size corbel is being selected.
