NE Juniper Bowl

[dan carter]

There seems to be some disagreement on cedar and juniper. I think this small NE bowl is juniper. What cedar I have used in the past didn't have the irregular lighter color inside the richer heartwood. Thoughts?

[Steve Vaughan]

Looks like eastern red cedar to me.

[Steve Schlumpf]

I've only turned our local White Cedar - so can't help with the wood ID but your bowl sure has some great color! Nice work!

[John Keeton]

Never turned juniper, but I have turned a piece of red cedar, and been around it for a lifetime. Sure looks like cedar to me.

Whatever it is, you did a nice job on the bowl!!

[Fred Perreault]

Juniper and cedar are used interchangably, but are in fact different species. And there are numerous varieties of both. We have both species here on Cape Cod, as I believe they can live quite well in poor soil.
"Junipers are coniferous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conifer) plants in the genus Juniperus [/URL] of the cypress family [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressaceae"]Cupressaceae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper#cite_note-0). Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic), south to tropical Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa) in the Old World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_World), and to the mountains of Central America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America).
Some juniper trees are misleadingly given the common name "cedar," including Juniperus virginiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana), the "red cedar" that is used widely in cedar drawers. True cedars are those tree species in the genus Cedrus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar), family Pinaceae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinaceae)."
I have turned both, and the largest difference is the red cedar is more aromatic than the juniper, and juniper seems to have a more mottled reddish/yellow/brownish color. We also have what is called "lowland' cedar, which is a uniform light brownish color throughout. I snagged the above quoted passage from Wikipedia, which explained it as well as anybody. There also is some disagreement among researchers regarding juniper vs. cedar.
The "red cedar" around here has a red to mahogany color inside, and a cream to white new wood layer. And stinks very nice, but is probably a juniper.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Dan that is a good looking bowl. Nice form. Definitely looks to be red cedar to me. I have turned quite a bit of it down here. The Juniper that I have turned is more yellowish brown and doesn't have the aroma that cedar has.

[John Keeton]

Well, then.....let me clarify....I HAVE turned Juniper - just didn't know it!!:D:D

Thanks, Fred! Interesting info, and I had no idea there were so many "varieties" of juniper. You just gotta love the info that floats around on this forum. I am now more knowledgeable than I was when I awoke this morning.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I am now more knowledgeable than I was when I awoke this morning.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

[Al Wasser]

All the "cedar" bowls, etc that I recall seeing posted here and on other sites are junipers. Eastern red cedar is a juniper as is the western version called Rocky Mtn juniper. Further most of the hybrid upright junipers used in landscaping are some clone of the of the Eastern and Western "Cedar". I can't correct everyone so I also label my bowls as cedar since it is so widely used as a name.

[John Keeton]

Hey, Bernie!!! I try to learn one thing every day, and Fred was kind enough to chip in this morning!!:D;) Much better than the things Ms. Keeton wants me to learn, all of which would require much more effort on my part, and not have much "fun factor!"

[Gary Chester]

Thanks for the info Fred,

I got a bunch of what I thought was western red cedar, but from your description what actually have is lowland cedar. It started out with some red but turned boring brown within minutes... oh well, I got some good turning practice out of it.

[Brian Effinger]

Don't know what wood it is, but it sure is pretty. Well done Dan.

[David E Keller]

Nice looking 'cediper' bowl:D

My trouble with new info is that it seems to displace old info which I also want to retain. I may have just forgotten my wife's birthday due to my new found knowledge of tree taxonomy.:eek:

[Fred Perreault]

I like "cediper", and plan to use the term from now on. Wait til the LOML sees me try to use it in Scrabble. You guys will back me up, huh?

[John Keeton]

Fred, that has to be a triple score word!

Nice looking 'cediper' bowl:D

My trouble with new info is that it seems to displace old info which I also want to retain. I may have just forgotten my wife's birthday due to my new found knowledge of tree taxonomy.:eek:David, you need to "de-frag" the ol' hard drive to free up some space. Might have some bad sectors, too!

[Baxter Smith]

Pretty ???? bowl or whatever it is.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

As I have tried to get the info out up here, in that there's just NO NATIVE CEDAR growing here in N America, nobody pays any attention to it.

Yes the so called Eastern Red Cedar is in fact a Juniper, but it seems no-one want's to know about it, so it's kept on being called by it's wrong name.

But whatever, it is a nice smelling Juniper bowl, well done :p

[Mike Minto]

i'm no help, either, i'm sure, but the bark looks too "hard" to be cedar, which i've found to be kind of feathery. nice wood, nice bowl, regardless.

[charlie knighton]

very nice....