What to do with a cedar log?

[Robert Marshall]

My contractor (on a renovation I'm doing on a rental house) brought me a cedar log from some hunting property he has, to the south of Rabun County, GA. It's about 8 feet long, and probably 10-12 inch diameter. The bark has all shagged-off, leaving just the wood, which is still wet (I would usually say 'green,' but with cedar, 'pink' is more like it.

Here it is:

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I'm thinking this could make some nice natural-edge bowls, with a lot of color on the bottoms. What do you think?

What other ideas might you have, for this wood? Any particular problems to look out for, working with cedar?

Thanks.

Robert

[Robert Henrickson]

What other ideas might you have, for this wood? Any particular problems to look out for, working with cedar?Thanks.
Robert

Allergic reaction. I can't be in a room where cedar is being turned. Other people have no problem.

[Robert Hayward]

Eastern Red Cedar, ERC, turns and finishes nicely but it is somewhat soft so it dents easily. I have made a number of small bowls with it. The color and grain patterns always draw positive comments from people looking at the finished pieces. I have a few big, 16" ~ 18" bowls roughed and drying in the barn from two big cedar trees taken out of my front yard last summer. Also a huge pile of turning blanks from the same two trees. Most of the wood from one of the trees has a curly grain pattern.

[robert baccus]

Turns great but sometimes has a tendency to crack--dry carefully. Be careful, that log looks a bit old and doughty on the sapwood.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Proper name for that tree is Juniper, probably Juneperus virginiana as it is the most common one.

The wood turns well and has a distinct aroma, (We like it) the shavings get put in some bowls in the house for that smell, it last for quite a while.

The wood likes to check when drying and that nice color will change to a slightly reddish brown color, time to do that depends on the amount of light that gets to the wood.

New and older.
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The log you have there does look like the sapwood is rotten or very close to it, it might be too soft to turn.

[Richard Golde]

Cedar bowels turned end grain look real nice. You have the lighter and darker rings and a darker area where the branches are. The rim has high and low areas because of the convoluted outer rim. Turn it dry or soak it in alcohol to dry it as it can crack between the convolutes. If it does all is not lost. Fill in the crack with a filler for contrast. Turquoise looks great with the rose color.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Because of the knots sticking out from the center, a spindle gouge is not the best tool for turning ERC between centers. They grow like weeds here. Come up in every abandoned pasture. I have a few almost 40 ft tall. When the wood burns, the smoke smells like sweet incense. cut offs-chunks sanded smooth make little fragrant blocks to toss in dresser drawers. I know a woman who keeps small flat pieces hanging in her car for an air freshener. Some folks are allergic, either too the tree, the greens or even the wood. My mother for instance could not be in an enclosed space with the tree or it's green branches. (She found out when some one used ERC as a Christmas tree. ) I let some dry in the barn for a year and then rough turned some round cylinders for later turning use. Even the cylinders split in another few months. The wood also seems to check in one long line along the outside and then the check extends all the way to the center. A real pain in the butt for air drying. I do have some in a corner that had been drying for ten or more years. Some places even clean up the turning shavings and put the shavings in small tightly woven cloth sacks as dresser sachets for fancy folk. I have "resawn" some on my little shop bandsaw and then cut out pieces like an apple and let the kids sand them to give as hand made gifts for teachers. (or a heart to give grand mom for Valentines day) I also cut some of the larger branches in one inch cross sections. the white around the red center makes cute "eyes" for snow men.

[John K Jordan]

My contractor (on a renovation I'm doing on a rental house) brought me a cedar log from some hunting property he has, to the south of Rabun County, GA. It's about 8 feet long, and probably 10-12 inch diameter. The bark has all shagged-off, leaving just the wood, which is still wet (I would usually say 'green,' but with cedar, 'pink' is more like it.

Here it is:

377450

I'm thinking this could make some nice natural-edge bowls, with a lot of color on the bottoms. What do you think?

What other ideas might you have, for this wood? Any particular problems to look out for, working with cedar?

Thanks.

Robert

Robert,

I use a lot of eastern red cedar, both around the farm and in the shop. I have a pile of over a dozen cedar logs I'm sawing when I get time, some are close to 24" in diameter. Most of it is for siding for my new peacock house but I'm cutting some to dry for turning. (I've never turned it green.) Some things:

- The deep color will quickly fade as the wood dries. It will still look good though.

- Some people have sensitivity problems with cedar. Like all woods, use a respirator when sanding. When I got cedar dust under my watch (when I wore a watch) where it stayed moist for a while I got a mild rash. I have zero problems with dust on my skin otherwise.

- Cedar dries quickly. When I cut boards on my sawmill and I'm impatient I lay the boards out in the sun and flip them over a couple of times a day. They are well dried in a few day.

- Cedar is very stable. Warping is unusual.

- The heartwood of cedar is very resistant to rot but the sap wood is not. My 100 year old barn was built with cedar tree trunk posts. The sap wood on one post was soft and punky after being exposed to rain from a hole in the roof but the heart wood was still solid so I didn't have to replace the post.

- Cedar turns beautifully with sharp tools.

- Cedar easily develops checking from too much heat while sanding. This is the reason I got started using hand-held scrapers on the inside of my first cedar bowl (my third bowl ever).

- I sometimes use nothing but beeswax on cedar turnings, sometimes "danish" oil, sometimes lacquer, sometimes shellac friction polish.

Some 2" cedar slabs, air drying for platters, small bowls, and turning squares. None of it warped.
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The figure can be amazing if you find a "marbled" tree.
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Some turnings. The first picture is of my third bowl when I started this woodturning life. Some of the (old) wands are cedar.
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JKJ

[Robert Engel]

If its a natural growing tree, the species we have in this area is Southern Red Cedar. The species is Juniperus silicicola. It is NOT the same as Eastern Red Cedar (J. virginiana).

I have built a little furniture of it the problem is the knots, and the softness of the wood. Most of what I've used it for is V-T&G paneling for lining closets or wainscotting.

Older, bigger trees will usually have some punkiness. The trees of your size are the best to mill IMO.

Caution: You MUST use lung protection with milling this wood inside a shop. Its kind of like MDF it literally coats everything. Some people can have actual allergic reactions.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

If its a natural growing tree, the species we have in this area is Southern Red Cedar. The species is Juniperus silicicola. It is NOT the same as Eastern Red Cedar (J. virginiana).

I have built a little furniture of it the problem is the knots, and the softness of the wood. Most of what I've used it for is V-T&G paneling for lining closets or wainscotting.

Older, bigger trees will usually have some punkiness. The trees of your size are the best to mill IMO.

Caution: You MUST use lung protection with milling this wood inside a shop. Its kind of like MDF it literally coats everything. Some people can have actual allergic reactions.

Robert I just go by the info I find on these trees, and according to that, the Juniperus silicicola variety status is not recognized and that is what it was clued at one time.

I got this from the University of Florida, there’s some more info, but this covers it pretty well, so Juniperus virginians is the name still, and a pretty tree it is, had some growing in my yard here in Ontario.
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[Robert Engel]

I've been told my both foresters and a sawyer the trees down here are Southern Red Cedar and they are not the same as Eastern.

Could be virginiana and its just variety like your quote said, but IFAS at the University of Florida calls it J. slicicola

Here is a reference. (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st326)

[Ted Baxter]

I don't mean to highjack this thread but it caused me to think about a couple of ceder closets we have in the house built in the 30s. Is there a way to refresh the ceder so the wood be fragrent again. I love the smell of ceder.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

There's a lot of that in the taxonomy of plants and animals. Is it a separate species, a closely related species, or just a variety within a species. Kind of like Pluto no longer being a planet. The experts jocky back and forth about it and we peons are just along for the confusion. There are biologists who argue about whether the eastern coyote is a new something. They are all wolf hybrids, they are larger, hunt differently and have a different diet than their western coyote cousins. Same argument applies to the eastern red wolf, if it even still exists. Similar arguments go on in the scientific community about plants. Some universities go one way while others go another. The plant is still the plant, they argue about how to classify it, almost to the extent of medieval scholars about angels frolicking on pinheads.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Ted, it can be refeshed by some light sanding. It can also be refreshed by an application of cedar oil. Saw it for sale at my local Ace hardware in with the varnishes and butcher block oil

[Robert Henrickson]

There's a lot of that in the taxonomy of plants and animals. Is it a separate species, a closely related species, or just a variety within a species. Kind of like Pluto no longer being a planet. The experts jocky back and forth about it and we peons are just along for the confusion. ..... Some universities go one way while others go another. The plant is still the plant, they argue about how to classify it, almost to the extent of medieval scholars about angels frolicking on pinheads.

It's true of taxonomy in any field. For decades I have had the same sort of discussion about pottery shape typologies. In archaeology, at least, the two ends of the "where to divide?" tended to be referred to as "lumpers" vs "splitters". I tended somewhat toward the "lumper" persuasion -- all the pottery I dealt studied was made by artisans, but was not fine. And it wasn't just details of shape which were uncertain -- I would have discussions with the director of the project as to the definition of "bowl" vs "pot" vs "jar".

[John K Jordan]

Ted, it can be refeshed by some light sanding. It can also be refreshed by an application of cedar oil. Saw it for sale at my local Ace hardware in with the varnishes and butcher block oil

I found cedar oil at Woodcraft.

[Ted Baxter]

thanks I will get some oil and try it. I should have sanded them before we had new light gray carpet installed last week.:D Thats me as usual think about doing something a day late

[Leo Van Der Loo]

It's true of taxonomy in any field. For decades I have had the same sort of discussion about pottery shape typologies. In archaeology, at least, the two ends of the "where to divide?" tended to be referred to as "lumpers" vs "splitters". I tended somewhat toward the "lumper" persuasion -- all the pottery I dealt studied was made by artisans, but was not fine. And it wasn't just details of shape which were uncertain -- I would have discussions with the director of the project as to the definition of "bowl" vs "pot" vs "jar".

Of course we have this here with wood turning shapes, is it a bowl or platter or pot, however in the case of the Juniper it was at best only classified as a variety of the Juniper virginiana, and according the Florida university that variety status should not stand, so only Juniperus virginiana is the only accepted name for it.