Working with redwood...

[Michael Donahue]

I often get a bit giddy when I see some beautiful or unusual wood :D I saw a few ebay auctions for curly redwood and I was wondering what this material was like to work with. Here in CT, I don't think I've ever seen a piece of redwood!

Does it work like pine or other softwoods? Is it reasonably durable say for door panels? Does it dent really easily? What should I know before making a blind leap and buying something like this?

[John Michaels]

I bought a piece of curly redwood two years ago. It was beautiful, but very soft, softer than pine in my opinion. I guess in depends on your application whether or not it will work for you.

[Michael Donahue]

I bought a piece of curly redwood two years ago. It was beautiful, but very soft, softer than pine in my opinion. I guess in depends on your application whether or not it will work for you.

What did you end up doing with it? How has it held up?

[John Michaels]

I still have it, but haven't done anything with it yet.

[Chris Kennedy]

I grew up in California, with redwood galore. I haven't used the curly variety, but it looks interesting.

Redwood is on the softer side, but I wouldn't say it is as soft as pine. We would use it for fencing and outdoor furniture when I was a kid, and after it had been outside for a week, you would be hardpressed to put a dent in it with your thumb. Of course, this is the regular variety.

I imagine that curly redwood is like regular redwood -- without sealing, it will go grey.

Cheers,

Chris

[Larry Edgerton]

I have a table made out of a piece of redwood crotch cut and it is very hard actually, but this is an old growth piece. We have counted over two hundred growth rings before getting bugeyed.

It would work fine for door panels, and it is indeed a beautiful peice of wood. I use West System #?, sorry the number escapes me, but I think it is seven, to hard surface soft woods in cases like this. It will still dent, but not nearly as easily.

[Ben Franz]

Last year I bought about 120 BF of curly redwood from a local WW who was moving out of state. I plan to use it for sculptures and carving mostly but the first project will be a small Asian style bench. I don't recommend it for anything that will see much wear and tear. Most of the redwood now is pretty soft. Old growth, vertical grain stock is another story. When I was a remodelling contractor in California, I found a lot of older houses (very early 20th century) were framed with full dimensional rough sawn redwood - beautiful wood and HARD. Also, dust control is essential - redwood dust will mess up your lungs more than most woods.

[Lee Schierer]

I made a cutting board for my mother over 45 years ago from redwood. She has used it continuously since then. It worked like pine, smelled good too. I believe it is harder than pine. It is a deep reddish brown color since it has been kept indoors. You don't see much of it east of the Mississippi though.

[Chris Padilla]

Ya...plenty o' redwood 'round here! :D

It is a good outdoor wood as stated. It will turn ash grey outside unless you tend to it once every so often (depending upon the stain used).

I'd use it for door panels with no qualms. It isn't as soft as cedar (but then I think cedar dents if you look at it cross-eyed) but should hold up fine.

[David Dalzell]

I currently have two pieces that look very similar to yours as pictured. I resaw the slabs to make jewelery box tops. I have used both curly and burl. It works easily, very soft, but there are two things to watch out for. It is prone to large chipout (chunks) along the edges of the piece. Also if you use a handplane it will easily tearout. This is because the wood is very soft plus the grain goes every which way. I have not tried it with a power planer, just handplanes. But overall I love the stuff. Just sand it down to get rid of any tearout. I usually finish it with Watco Danish oil and get a fantastic effect.

[Bill Houghton]

It depends a great deal on whether it's first or second growth, I think - the older stuff behaves, often, very differently. Our house was built in the 1890's, and I hold on to any chunks of trim or siding that come off the house. One piece, that was turned into smaller trim pieces, appeared to have no grain direction at all - it cut and planed like hard butter in any direction. Second-growth wood is not like that.

Splinters like mad, and can split easily.

Can be hard to pare cross-grain (like all soft woods).

Be careful to get any splinters out of your fingers/flesh soon after they get in - some extractive in the redwood causes really impressive festering.

Most of the redwood I've used goes very, very dark with an oil finish - so experiment to find a suitable finish.

A nice wood.

If you ever find yourself in northwestern California - seriously northwestern, like almost to the Oregon border - plan to stay in, or at least visit, the Curly Redwood Lodge in Crescent City, for some of the most awe-inspiring curly redwood anywhere. Doors, siding, interior trim are all made from curly redwood. We've stayed there a couple of times, and I've had to spend the first half hour each time drooling: http://www.curlyredwoodlodge.com/default.htm. Good seafood at the restaurant across the road, too.