Planing Red Cedar

[Dan McCallum]

I have some pieces of clear quartersawn tight grained old growth western red cedar, probably in the range of 40 or 50 growth rings per inch. It's not planing up to a beautiful smooth surface. I've tried my Lee Valley bevel up smoother, my Krenov style plane, and my somewhat trusty Stanley #4. All seem to yield a rather rough 'scraped' looking surface.

Anyone have any secrets to share?

[John Keeton]

Dan, I haven't tried to do any finish work with western cedar - only some outdoor stuff. But, given its structure, I would think getting it to a "finished surface" would be difficult. It tends to be brittle, splintery, and soft. I would suggest sanding as opposed to planing, but the dust can be very toxic to some, so caution is in order. Perhaps others have better experiences and can contribute.

[William Drylie]

Dan:

I have noticed the same problem in planing cedar. At the time I happened to have a middle pitch plane that I was using on some hard wood. When I switched to a common pitched plane I got an improvement. Then I sharpened that plane and got good results. It seems that even though it is a relatively soft wood it requires a sharp blade and a low angle to get good results. I also noticed that it seemed to dull the blade quicker than I would have expected from a soft wood.

Bill

[Dan McCallum]

Thanks for the inputs guys. I was not able to get any better results. For this project, it was OK to have it a little bit rough.

I have a bunch of this wood in my shed though, so I need to get it figured out eventually!

I would prefer to get it to a nice smooth planed surface rather than sanding it.

Dan

[Bob Easton]

My one experience with WRC was pretty good, but it really really needs your plane(s) to be as sharp as you can get them.

The project was a Greenland kayak paddle, which doesn't have too many large flat surfaces. Most of the work was done with an ancient Stanley #51 spokeshave. Some was done with an 1898 Stanley low level block plane (#60 1/2) I sharpened both to where they would draw blood just by looking at them.

A bit about the paddle here: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=210

If you decide to do any sanding, please heed John's advice and wear a good respirator (not a flimsy paper mask). WRC is pretty high on the toxicity index.

[Manny Hernandez]

This is old growth western red.
http://www.daikudojo.org/Classes/20061118/pics/2006_1118_141947.JPG

You need a sharp blade and low angle. I prefer 38 degrees and less. It's a bevel down blade with a 25 degree bevel angle.
That Veritas low angle plane should work nicely with a 25 degree bevel on it. I have one and use it occasionally on softwoods when I'm not using my Japanese planes.
When using WRC or POC I need to refine the edge with my finest stone. Any little burr or nick and you'll see some dullness or streaks on the surface of the wood.
I'd like to emphasize what others have said about using a good dust mask. I reacted to the dust while I was resawing. I had difficulty breathing afterwards. That was a harsh lesson.

Good luck.

Manny

[David Keller NC]

Dan - Much like eastern white pine, western red cedar (or eastern red, for that matter, though it's a bit harder) will challenge your notion of what "sharp" means. One really good test for this is to take your blade out of the plane and try to shave off a bit of the end-grain. If it tears, your blade is either ground at too steep a bevel angle, not sharp enough, or both.

Part of the problem is that WRC is so soft that it will compress ahead of the iron, and re-bound after the plane passes. I've had a decent amount of luck prepping very soft wood for planing by splashing it with a 0.5 lb. cut of shellac - very dilute yellow glue will also work. That treatment stiffens the fibers, and they cut cleanly rathe than tearing off. Naturally, I only did this to the eastern white pine I was working that was going to show on the external surfaces of the cabinet - it's too much work for secondary surfaces.