Replies

1. 
   Trees2dust | Feb 21, 2003 12:47am | #1

   I'm no authority on wood properties, but here's what I recall from having used Alaskan Yellow Cedar once:

   Works easily with machine and hand tools, steam bends well, very pleasant strong odor, close grained, light weight, uniform yellowish color with very little grain pattern.

   My local lumber yard had one 2x8 stick of it that was mixed in with someone's order of Western Red Cedar, so they set it aside for me.  I used it to make parts for a traditional Aleutian skin on frame kayak (called a baidarka, for those who are interested).  It was the best soft wood I have ever worked.  I bandsawed it, drawknifed and spokeshaved it and steam-bent it into ribs.  Great stuff, and ahh... the smell... too bad I can't find it locally.

   Rick

2. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 21, 2003 01:17am | #2

   It should be in the Wood Handbook from the Forest Products Laboratory. Google for their URL, then search for wood handbook. You can get each chapter as a separate PDF file. I think Chapter 4 is the one you want.

1. 
   flonji | Feb 22, 2003 11:34pm | #9

   Thank you, one and all. I believe I now have a good idea of what this timber can be used for and that I made the correct gamble when I picked a length from the local timber merchant.

   The project is a commision to construct a pair of oars for an 19th century Orkney Isles row/fishing boat that a friend is refurbishing. 3m long, square shank, narrow thin blade, tied to  the gunwales with rope. Hurray for outboards. Anybody see any pitfalls I could have missed?.

3. 
   Hempstalk | Feb 21, 2003 01:33am | #3

   Flonji,

        This is a local species here in British Columbia.  This is a link to information about yellow cedar and many other woods local to this area.

   http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/wilderness/forest/index.html

4. 
   observer | Feb 21, 2003 07:51am | #4

   Trees2dust is on the money. It's also an excellent carving wood.

5. 
   Clay | Feb 21, 2003 08:58am | #5

   I used to use a lot of it to make picture frame moldings.  It is much finer grained than most western red cedar and often available in very clear nearly flawless lengths.  It carves and turns wonderfully.  It sands to a magnificent semigloss even before finishing.  I used to use a deep wine red water stain on the pieces that had some character in their grain.... they'd stain up with dramatic variations in the tones that were very popular with my customers.  The only caution is to watch your step and wear gloves when sanding the corners... sometimes a split will develop on the corners because there is a strong contrast between the winter and summer grain.

6. 
   jonsherryl | Feb 21, 2003 05:06pm | #6

   Flonji, for cabinet making purposes, yellow-cedar is the nicest of our North American "cedars" (botanically, they're really cypresses.) With a specific gravity of 0.42, yellow cedar is actually denser than some of our light duty hardwoods; like yellow poplar, aspen and sassafras. It's even, tight grained texture and spicey scent make it a joy to work with, but it does have a tendency to split easily.

   It has excellent tonal properties and I use it for the sound boards on dulcimers. There's an article comparing the cedars in the February issue of Woodwork magazine. 

1. 
   Windwoodtrader | Feb 21, 2003 06:09pm | #7

   As I recall it's a lot like Port Orford Cedar but more available. Both are known for their stability and even grain. Port Orford has been renowned for arrow shafts and in the making of shojii screens. A really fine wood with considerable strength also used in post and beam houses and decks.Windy Wood

   From the Helderberg Mountains

1. 
   jonsherryl | Feb 21, 2003 07:50pm | #8

   Windy, Port-Orford and Alaskan-yellow are similar in many respects, such as texture and scent, but Port-Orford is usually more of a light tan in color and it's not quite as dense. Its average specific gravity (green volume to ovendry weight) is only 0.39. Both of these woods though are much heavier, stronger and finer textured than western redcedar,  which has a specific gravity of only 0.31. They really are very nice cabinet woods compared to virtually all of our other softwoods (conifers.)

   ...Unfortunately, they also have very good resistance to decay, so they're used in high volume construction applications, like siding and decking. Port-Orford has been just about wiped out and Alaskan-yellow (a little more plentiful to begin with) is being logged pretty heavily. These cedars, including western red, don't regenerate quickly. They are site sensitive and much slower growers than Doug-fir, or even redwood. When the old growth is gone, it's going to be gone for a very long time.

   I sure would like to see Alaskan-yellow conserved for finer, low volume applications...but naturally durable woods, world wide, are under intensive logging pressure and I don't think it's going to let up anytime soon.