Cherry

(Left-Oil based / Right-Water based finish)
Appearance: Color: sapwood is gray-white; heartwood is salmon red to orange-brown when fresh, and becomes russet or reddish brown when seasoned; often marked with dark streaks.
Grain: Mostly interlocked; texture is medium to rather course.
Availability: Readily
Properties:
Hardness: 2350 Janka Table,82% harder than Northern red oak .
Durability: Dense and very strong.
Workability:
Sawing: Difficult due to high density, carbide tooling recommended.
Nailing: Good holding ability; due to hardness may require adjustment of angle of penetration and/or height.
Sanding: Well
Finishing: No known problems

Prunus serotina

(Left-Oil based / Right-Water based finish)
Appearance: Color: Heartwood is dark to reddish brown, lustrous; sapwood is light brown to pale with a light pinkish tone. Some manufacturers steam lumber to bleed the darker heartwood color into the sapwood, resulting in a more uniform color.
Grain: Fine, frequently wavy, uniform texture. True quatersawn has distinctive flake pattern. Texture is satiny, with some gum pockets.
Availability: Limited
Properties:
Hardness: 950 janka Table, 26% softer than Northern red oak
Durability: Strong, moderately hard. Usually considered too soft for an entire floor-mostly used for accents and borders.
Workability:
Sawing: Good
Nailing: Good
Sanding: Satisfactorily
Finishing: No known problems