I'm in the process of dimensioning some cedar boards, and I've found that my plane blades are getting dull very quickly. I have Veritas bevel-up jointer, and with a freshly-sharpened A2 blade (finished on a Shapton Kuromaku 12000), the first several passes on a 3.5 foot long board leave a nice, glassy-smooth finish, but after only 20 or so passes, it leaves a fuzzy surface. With a dull blade, you have to advance it to get any cutting action, and for this wood, I've found that I've had to do that much sooner than with other woods.
The same thing happens with a PM-V11 blade in another plane, though with that plane, I haven't paid close attention to how quickly the surface quality declines. I just know that seemed faster than I'm used to.
Edit: I also tried using an inexpensive kanna on it, thinking that maybe I needed a low angle to get good surface quality. Similar story: first several passes were glassy smooth, but the quality degraded very, very quickly with that plane. The plane is an inexpensive one (I paid about $50 for it) but the laminated blade has performed just fine, other than in this case.
Is my experience with cedar a common one? I've found some other discussions that mention that cedar is hard on blades. And what is it about cedar that makes it wear down blades so quickly?