Traditional aromatic (red) cedar, used to line chests, closets and the like, repels moths and smells nice. Do any other varieties of cedar have the same ability to keep those clothes destroying pests at bay? Wondering specifically about Port Orford Cedar. Want a lighter colored wood to panel some walk in closets.
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Sam, it's questionable if even the traditional aromatic cedar actually repells moths. I don't see why you couldn't use the lighter colored cedar. It's not quite as strong scented (more of a spice-like odor), but you can buy aromatic cedar oil. It's available for renewing the scent in old cedar chests.
Sam , Port Orford does have a rather strong odor , slightly different than Incense or aromatic Red Cedar. If at any time it's odor starts to fade a light sanding will freshen the smell. Leave it un finished . BTW in Japan Port Orford is highly treasured , almost sacred ,they get quite a bit of it from us here in Oregon , from what I have heard they have logs stored under water , and almost every household has something made of it. good luck
I'm having a Senior Moment here, but there's a wood that old carved Chinese chests (big ones) used to be made of that also had that repellent characteristic. Maybe Jon can retrieve what the wood name is!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I remember some that my mom had, seems to me they were camphor wood.
Yep! That's it. The C-drawer was stuck.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Camphor is correct. Here in Japan, even people with expensive Paulownia wood dressers (kiri-dansu) traditionally used Camphor oil repellents. Camphor wood is called kusu in Japanese, and the oil is known as shohnoh. In the FWIW department, the great torii at the Itsukushima Shrine (aka Miyajima) in the Inland Sea is made from whole Camphor logs due to its moisture-resistance.
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". . .and only the stump or fishy part of him remained."
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
Norm, just out of curiosity, how difficult (and how expensive) is it to source camphorwood in Japan these days? And if it's readily available again, do you know where it's coming from?
To be honest, I've never used it and have no idea. I know it's supposed to be native to central and southern Japan, but given the level of population density, I don't know how much of it used here (for dressers, for example), is domestically sourced. I'll see if I can find out something.
". . .and only the stump or fishy part of him remained."
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
Forestgirl, I think TomDog has it right. The old 19th century Chinese sea chests were made of camphorwood. That would be a great choice, but it's now a little hard to source. There was a thread here several weeks ago on camphorwood and apparently it's become a weed tree in both Florida and Australia...So, maybe it will become more plentiful over the coming decades, but I haven't seen much of it on the commercial market yet.
Port Orford is also scarce and expensive now. I think the best choice these days, if you're looking for a really blonde colored cedar with very nice working characteristics would be Alaska-cedar (yellow cedar.) It's a close relative of Port Orford, just a bit denser and finer textured, but it also has a spicey scent that is a little less harsh than our eastern aromatic cedar. I use it for dulcimer sound boards and love working with it.
I'd definetly go with the yellow cedar. It is easy to work with has nice color and finishes beautifully. It is a bit soft (being a cedar) but if 1/4 saawn carves like the proverbial butter(with really sharp tools). Yellow cedar burl is probably the most figured that I work with . If using for chests leave the inside unfinished to leave that lovely scent.
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