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CEDAR, RED AROMATIC
Juniperus virginiana
Juniperus virginiana of the family Cupressaceae, the cypress family
The more technically correct name is Eastern redcedar (NOT "red cedar" but redcedar) but lumber stores are far more likely to call it aromatic red cedar, so that's what I call it. To further confuse things, it isn't really a cedar at all, but as is indicated by the genus name (Juniperus) it is variety of juniper which is part of the cypress family.
A somewhat brittle, albeit relatively soft, wood that works quite well if you can avoid chipout, this is the wonderfully aromatic wood that people put in closets and dresser drawers to make things smell good and to drive out moths, which don't like the smell.
my samples:
This is 2 sides and the end grain of the same piece and it was sanded just before the picture was taken so as to show the difference in freshly exposed heartwood vs wood that has been exposed to the air for a while, as in the samples below. Because the end grain sucks in air more readily than the sides, I would have had to sand off quite a bit more wood to make the end grain have that freshly sanded look as opposed to the slightly faded look it still retains.
end grain closeup from the piece directly above --- color is a little dull
samples that have been exposed to the air for some time (years, actually, but it doesn't take years for the purple of newly exposed heartwood to fade into a slightly purplish/reddish brown or dark tan).
another plank and end grain that have been exposed to the air for some time
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
plank and end grain --- this piece has the dreaded "blue stain" (aka "sap stain") which is discussed in the " ... wood terms described ... " page. This piece was contributed to the site by John Saxon of The Cedar Store --- thanks, John !
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
small plank and end grain --- I noticed as I was cutting up pieces for my bowls that this one has some nice ray flakes, which I do not often see in this species
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
sample plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
two pictures showing both sides of a set of flats all cut from the same plank. In the left picture, the side facing the camera is one that has only been lightly sanded after having been exposed to the air for years whereas in the right picture, the side facing the camera is newly exposed and freshly sanded wood. The colors in both cases are quite accurate. On the bottom piece in the left picture, the sanding has progressed far enough that some of the fresh color is beginning to show through, particlarly at the top of the piece.
yet another set of flats cut from the same plank as those above. The bottom one is turned so that the surface facing the camera is one that has only been lightly sanded after having been exposed to the air for years whereas the top two pieces are turned to show freshly exposed wood.
plank and closeup with carefully corrected color
plank and closeup with carefully corrected color
plank and closeup with carefully corrected color
plank and closeup with carefully corrected color
plank and closeup with carefully corrected color
a set of planks that range in thickness from 1/2" to 2" and were chosen to show here based on variety of color and grain --- these were surfaced just a few days before the pics were taken and many of them have a very strong purple cast and areas of exceptionally clear white sapwood
a set of planks that range in thickness from 1/2" to 2" and were chosen to show here based on variety of color and grain --- these were surfaced just a few days before the pics were taken and many of them have a very strong purple cast and areas of exceptionally clear white sapwood
three of the planks shown together to emphasize the difference in color. The bottom one is what I think of as "normal" for this wood, while the middle one has a yellow tint that is fairly common and the top one has a deep violet tint.
another set of planks --- I would say that I now have offically taken too #&$^%@ many pics of aromatic red cedar !
web pics
log cross section with fresh-cut color
planks with believable color
turning stock
plank with wet and dry sections
flitch cut pieces with believable, but somewhat faded, color
plank with very unlikely color
For the color in these to be accurate, the pics would have to have been taken just after the lumber was cut, which I find unlikely, so probably the pics have been doctored to show what the lumber DOES look like when freshly cut, and even then there's too much purple to be believable.
3 views of the same set of planks --- you can see how much color variation there is just in this set of pics, and that's pretty common. Getting the color right on wood pics is a lot of work and most vendors don't even bother to try. I suspect the color in the last pic is fairly accurate and the other two are off by varying amounts.
plank --- the deep red is either bogus or means that the wood has been finished
planks with color that is correct for pieces that have been exposed to the air for at least a few months, although the second one is a little too faded too look quite real to me.
a distance shot of some planks --- color is very believable if wood is freshly planed
pen blanks --- although it did not say so, these appear to have been moistened, possibly waxed
veneer
products
bowl
a bowl with red aromatic cedar in the front. The left pic is just off the lathe and the right pic is after a coat of natural stain --- the cedar piece was chosen because it was a nice solid knot area. To the left of the cedar is cocobolo and to the right is morado. The base is also red aromatic cedar.
a cedar highlight in a turned, laminated, bowl. I specifically chose a piece that had both heartwood and sapwood. This really shows up better if you click to enlarge.
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laminated bowl with what I feel is very nice use of a section of red aromatic cedar chosen specifically for the combination of sapwood backing and swirly knot section in front. To the left of the cedar is a piece of maple burl and to the right is curly red maple. This pic was taken after the application of one coat of natural stain.
a coat rack I built for my daughter. It's coated with polyurethane. The color is quite accurate. I specifically chose pieces with as little sapwood as I could find, because I wanted a fairly uniform red color on this piece.
A doll-rocker for my daughter. The yellow is overemphasized in the picture on the right but that was the only way I could get the red to come out just right, which it did. It's coated with polyurethane and the bottom is philippine mahogany plywood. It is 27" long at the very top and 14" wide at the top rails. I specifically chose the pieces with the particular mix of heartwood and sapwood to get the multicolor effect. The bottom in these pics looks exactly like cerejeira but is in fact a much browner wood, luan ("Philippine mahogany")