Cedar

I've a wood pile full of eastern cedar (and 2 more large trees to take down). Problems is I've developed a hatred for this beautiful wood. I can't for the life of me get a gloss finish on the blasted stuff. Well, that's not true either, there is a beautiful finish on 2 sides, but the end grain sides suck the finish up like a straw.

Anyone got any ideas? I've buffed wax on the bowls in the past with good results, but the folks around here are asking for a hard, high- gloss finish. Any help would be much appreciated.

JD

Reply to
JD
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I often use Crystal Coat as a finish and it blotches badly on red cedar. What I now do is spray a couple of light coats of lacquer sanding sealer on. It drys in a few minutes. Then I lightly sand with

600 grit then use my regular finish.

I hate cedar because it is so soft.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

Shellac's probably easier to use as a sealer than lacquer, and it'll help control resin seep as well. Same principle as lacquer, high solids rapid evaporation to keep it close to the surface. Do the end grainwith a 2-3# cut, the rest with a 1-2#. No need for spray equipment, but the first coat will raise some fuzz, so you'll want to level and clear it prior to any subsequent.

My eastern white cedar ornaments shine up with shellac and maybe a little wax just fine.

Reply to
George

Hi JD, A few coats of lacquer will result in a high gloss finish. Yes the end grain will soak up the lacquer but after a few coats it will be ok. If you don't have spray equipment Deft makes lacquer in spray cans. I usually spray lacquer with the lathe turning slow. Cedar is a beautiful wood for about 2 weeks then it turns to an ugly rust red looking color and the sapwood is a pale yellowish color. Looks like the 10 million little boxes sold in every gift shop in the northeast. If you have a lot of it saw it up into boards and line your closets. If it were mine I would cut it into turning blanks, wax the ends and sell it on ebay. With the profits I would buy a few pieces of bloodwood that will easily take most any finish and stay red for years. I actually turned a piece of cedar a few weeks back and now it is that ugly gift shop color. Kinda makes me wonder why I bothered. :-) Bob

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Reply to
turnerbob

Bob

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I hadn't consider selling the blanks on ebay, good idea. The problem is, every piece I've ever turned out of the blasted stuff sells....quickly. Whether, we as craftsmen like the material or not, the customers do. The problem I've had is putting a good finish on that doesn't take an extremely long time to apply and finish (thus eating up my profit margin). I agree with you about the wood looking like a million other cedar trinket stores. I live 5 minutes from Mammoth Cave National Park, I'll take the tourist dollar as fast as anyone else will (yep, I'm making those 1 in a million pieces of crap we all buy while on vacation and take home). Honestly, I hate cedar, but I've got a bunch of it and no wood stove in the shop, so.... gonna make some money from it somehow. Ebay might be the easier way to go. I'll have to consider that.... or if someone would like to make some trades............. ;)

Thanks, JD

Reply to
JD

rol-woodturning.com

Hi JD, If you can turn and sell it more power to ya. I see cedar blanks quite often on ebay and it seems to sell. If you can get pieces

12"d x 4"h or larger you could get a decent price. I don't care for it and you don't like it but I'm sure there are people who love it. After all in some parts of the world sugar maple is an exotic and around here it grows like a weed. Bob
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Reply to
turnerbob

Hey JD, Ive always planned to build my own cigar box. Maybe this is the time. Slice some 1/16 pieces with which I will line the completed box, and send them over. Cigar boxes are all lined with this wood as it manages the right humidity, imparts some flavor via its aroma and combats the cigar beetle (that hates the cedar aroma). Max snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

On 15 ?????, 16:59, JD wrote :

Ebay might be the easier way to go.

Reply to
Max63

Actually, cigar humidors (not boxes) are usually lined with Spanish cedar.

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Just got home from the university to find my neighbor unloading a truckload of ................ wait for it..................... CEDAR. He thought I might enjoy turning it.

I think I'll see if I can make a club from some of it................. don't think bad of me.

I told him thanks before I slugged him.

Oh well, I guess the shop will smell good for a while.

What to do... What to do...

JD

Reply to
JD

I was offered a half a pickup load of cedar, been in a barn for 20 years drying.. took it in a heart beat.

I now have a 12 drawer, queen sized water bed. cedar faced drawers and solid cedar rails.. 2 side pieces each 3 feet wide and 7 feet tall-lower half are clothes drawers, upper half of these are adjustable shelves. making the doors for the fronts this year-ran out of enough wood for the door faces... overall the headboard/cabinets is 11 feet wide, 7 feet tall

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

I use aromatic cedar for scroll sawing and have thought about trying to turn some but the only way I get it is buying it at bLowes in the packages for closet lining. Cedar does go over big with people. I give those ornaments out at our Christmas Eve service at our church. Works well for scroll sawn ornaments but it would require glue ups to get it to a point where it's turnable. And it's generally so full of knots I can't see it being easy to work plus I would think it would tend to splinter.

On the other hand, getting my hands on a real turning blank might be a different story. How does it turn? I missed the early part of this thread so if you covered that I apologize.

I wouldn't mind trading some (I'm about 2 hours away from you) but I don't really have anything to trade. In retrospect I'd trade a piece of cherry I was given -- it was full of bugs. If my wife ever finds out what I used her microwave for she'll kill me before the retirement kicks in. Between the holes the bugs left and the fact that it would keep splintering off I've gotten almost nothing out of it. Half of that blank got me one "bowl" 3" in diameter and 3/4 inch high.

Off subject, I knew a fellow name of Charlie Daniel who taught at WKU. Haven't seen him in 10 years or so. I imagine he's retired now.

Reply to
Scratch Ankle

Sadly, Charlie passed away last year. He had retired from WKU a few years before.

JD

Reply to
JD

JD

Reply to
JD

I am in SW Missouri, and if I want BIG pieces of cedar I go find an Amish saw mill.. Seems there are several within about an hours drive and they seem to be contracted to cut and band saw cedar.. 6 by 6 8 foot long 2 years back was $20 lumber at the time I bought some was a rough 1 by 6" (full inch) 8 foot long for (2006 prices) around 70 cents a bd foot

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

that is why you put it on the lathe - don't saw it, just turn it into an object of beauty

Reply to
William Noble

Here's another vote for a shellac sealer coat. Useful for all sorts of stuff, really. The nice thing about shellac is that it's alcohol based, so it will separate just about anything without melting the layer below. It's got it's downside as a finish, but it's an excellent additon to a layer finish.

I guess what I'd suggest, as a guy who also makes most stuff for customers with a hard, high-gloss finish is to do a couple of coats of shellac, using it as a sealer, and then use an acryllic conversion finish (you can get it in spray cans if you don't want to mess with a gun) or spar poly to add some durability and water resistance.

I still can't say enough good things about spar poly- I must have tried every finish availible at least once, and I always go back to that. It's easy to spray, levels well, tough as nails, and just gets glossier the more it's handled. Not for the natural finish afficianados by any stretch of the imagination, but it's great for stuff that needs a tough, shiny finish.

Reply to
Prometheus

What would you trade for? I've got a stockpile of silver maple and weeping willow that's all dried... I'd have to look to make sure it isn't cracked, but at the last check it all looked pretty good. Neither is particularly rare or amazing, but then again, cedar isn't either!

Reply to
Prometheus

Well, it *is* cedar... if it's long enough, why not turn tenons on the ends and use it to make some rustic lawn furniture. Even if you don't want the stuff, it usually sells for unreasonably high prices in a lot of places, and you wouldn't have to finish it at all.

I'd think even if they're stove lengths, you can still get some little benches out of the deal with some planning.

The whole rustic thing is not my cup of tea, but at least it wouldn't take more than a hatchet, a spade bit and some time to knock a few pieces out- and it'd use up your cedar a lot faster than turning bowls will.

Reply to
Prometheus

You guys must get the employee discount down there... A 6x6 cedar post in my neck of the woods goes for close to $100 the last time I checked.

Reply to
Prometheus

Can I make you sick? a year back January we had a really bad ice storm here, no power for 1 to 3 weeks depending on where you live.. I found and brought home-free, 5 walnut trees. I got 3 pieces in my back yard, air drying for now, 2 of which that weigh over 1,000 # each. The third is close to 900#. the total stack is about 12 feet wide, and 4 feet tall, varying lengths from 4 to 7 feet, varying diameters from a foot and up to something in the 30" range. It required a 'cherry picker' (automotive tool) to pick these up and load into the pickup.

Anything BELOW 9" I just ignored. I didn't need any firewood.

also got a cedar tree that was about a foot thick at the base, tapered down to 9" and totaled about 10 feet in length. I like turning cedar actually, and am going to take some of the smaller limbs-the 1 1/2" stubs and make pens, and perhaps make bowls out of the big.

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

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