Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I have little idea how molding is made by hand tools. A description in a separate post would be of interest to many I think.

Could you provide more details on how the top molding and top all came together to make a finished top? I am thinking that it was not easy getting the top as nice as it looks.

How are the shelves installed?

The wood: Nothing shabby about the cherry. It looks to be northern cherry with good color and not excessive pitch pockets. We would have been satisfied purchasing a bundle of the same.

"Rockler's sale wood (which has to be mill culls"....... There is no such thing as mill culls. At some point in the manufacturing the lumber is graded and then sold by grade. It has become common for the best packs of cherry to be put up as "Selects and Better". Selects is the 4th grade down from the top grade. The big question when buying a pack for resale is how much of the "better" is included in the Sel&Btr. If a pack of Sel&Btr gets picked over after the "better" is taken what is left will be narrow, short and/or have defects. In any case you wound up with some nice looking wood for the shelves. If one buys the "best" for $6/bdft and has a 20% cutting waste they are still ahead buying lower grade at $3/bdft and suffering a 50% cutting loss, with maybe some cut-offs to be used elsewhere.

"covered with stuff I don't see anywhere else, but not covered with pinkish cherry color"......? I don't understand what are you saying here?