Finishing Aromatic Red Cedar

[Ron Blaise]

Hi Folks:
I am making a Cedar chest for my baby daughter and have had issues with this oily wood. What procedure would you recommend to prep the wood for wipe on Poly? I tried Alcohol (worked great for glue-ups) but left stains I had to sand out. Thank you for your help.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

First I coat heavily with BLO then wipe off the excess, then I move on to brush on poly. I've never tried the wipe on type so I can't compare. I ususally wait several hours between the two processes. I make a ton of stuff from Aromatic Cedar....it's my favorite wood.

[Russ Boyd]

Just a thought. Wouldn't using poly (or most other finishes) at least.... mask the smell of the cedar?

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Yes it will. If you want the aromatic effect you have to stop at the sanding stage.

[Cody Colston]

Like Kelly, I build a lot of from Aromatic Red Cedar, mostly blanket chests, and have not experienced any finishing problems.

I also coat liberally with BLO and wipe off the excess after 15 or 20 minutes. The BLO seems to preserve that deep red color a lot longer.

Next, I put on Zinnser seal coat, sand lightly and then follow that with two or three coats of USL.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I've built a bunch of cedar chests and have not had any problem with finishes except where two surfaces come in contact (lid with chest body). The solution there was to forego coating the surface where the lid sat. The fastest way is to base coat with shellac and with it you can be assured of no issues with the oil in the cedar. It will just take a number of coats to build a nice finish on the cedar no matter what you use.

[Lee Schierer]

The cedar chests my Dad made (four of them)for "the girls" were all finished with Deft Clear Wood Finish (brusable lacquer). They are 30 years old and no signs of finishing problems.