How to get a rough cut finish on cedar

[Jon Cyr]

I know it's kind of counter-intuitive.... but I need to leave a rough finish. All the trim boards on my house are rough finished cedar. Since the wood isn't perfectly straight, there is a little bit of an overhang on the soffit of the porch right outside the front door. Obviously, the one spot that has to look bad, is the spot I'll look at every day, multiple times a day. I am wondering if it's possible to use maybe a hand planer to even it out, while still not smoothing the wood out too much to make it stand out. It seems like everything is made to make the wood look better, I need to keep it rough. :D I'm talking about a similar finish of a cedar fence board. Any tips?

[Jim Neeley]

I've seen some people create a rustic look with a scrub plane, which is essentially a hand plane with an about 3" radius curve at the end. The actual cut is only an inch or so wide but it leaves a rough-hewn look. Might be doable with a hand power plane, if you ground a radius in the blade?

"If you want to see what the look would be, go to http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolReviews/The%20Veritas%20Lee%20Valley%20Scrub%20Plane.html
and search for "keeping the scrubs apart" and you'll see an example.

For more on the plane itself you can visit http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=40_5

Jim

[Charlie MacGregor]

Maybe a toothed plane iron? I've yet to use one but I'd guess it wood leave a rough surface. I might also attempt it with a not so sharp bandsaw cut.

[Rob Sack]

Most rough exterior boards around here are what are sometimes referred to as roughsawn. All the siding on my house is roughsawn redwood. When I've need to make smooth or surfaced redwood match my siding, I "pull" it through my bandsaw backwards with light pressure at about a 45 degree angle to the blade. If it becomes too rough doing this, I use less pressure, and/or change the angle to the blade, and/or lightly sand it after "pulling" it through the bandsaw. With a little practice and experimentation, you should be able to get the look you want. The procedure is safe as long as you keep your hands away from the blade.

[Larry Edgerton]

I use a wire wheel in a drill or side grinder to get that rough texture back on cedar. Its not an exact match of course, but as you say it does not draw your eye to the difference.

Larry

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Jon, Had the same problem some years a go, Used my Sawsall with along blade installed and dragged the side of blade along face of cedar board, ended up with a band saw re-saw look. Tom

[Thom Porterfield]

Years ago, I worked in a glued laminated plant, and frequently, beams would be specified "rough sawn" or "re-sawn". Glued laminated beams are made from S4S lumber, and after glue-up, are planed to final width (which is why glued laminated beam made with 2x6s winds up 5-1/8" wide).

To provide rough-sawn appearance, then, they had a band saw where the wheels were side by side, teeth of the band facing the floor, the whole contraption on a dolly. They would fire up the saw, then "scuff" the whole surface by pushing the dolly along the length of the beam. It worked slick.

Rob's method above works well for cedar trim. So does a coarse wire brush wheel on a drill motor.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Sawmills sell to a lot of places, including operations that do "reman" work - short for remanufacturing. For example, the 1x2 and 2x2 firring strips you see at the BORG - sawmills don't produce those, reman operations do [although, a couple big mill operations also run reman operations].

Anyhoooo......it is common, especially on the left coast, for the BORG to buy 2x6 and 2x8 soffit and fascia [spruce] that is smooth one side, and rough the other. The sawmills produces this stuff as S4S. The reman operations that supply the BORG take the lumber, and set up a resaw [big, big bandsaw] so that the blade just barely skims the surface. This gives a rough-sawn look. You would want a small-tooth-count blade on your bandsaw, and you will want to move fast-fast-fast, so that you don't get a smooth cut.

Understand one other thing - since there is no kerf through the lumber, the blade's gullets cannot draw the dust down through the wood - it flies off the side. You will create an Old Testament plague-flood-locust amount of sawdust.

[George Gyulatyan]

Perhaps you could "even" them out with an axe? :)

[Myk Rian]

Walnut shell media blast.

[James White]

How about 36 grit sandpaper?

James

[Josiah Bartlett]

I've gotten that look before by accident with a pressure washer.

A wire wheel in an angle grinder gets it too.

[Jeff Duncan]

Maybe I missed it, but why don't you just buy rough sawn lumber in the first place and save yourself a lot of needless work?

good luck,
JeffD

[Myk Rian]

Maybe I missed it, but why don't you just buy rough sawn lumber in the first place and save yourself a lot of needless work?
That's too easy. :)