# Western red cedar.



## deeker (Nov 27, 2008)

On the mill and some 5/4 live edge boards.
Lots of bark encasements, make it interesting. I just wish I could keep the red color.





Log was too ugly to make a mantel.




The color on the pics....is close but not quite accurate.




One of my favorite logs to mill. Smells nice and is an easy wood to work with.

Kevin


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## Mike Van (Nov 27, 2008)

That looks just like our Eastern Red Cedar - Polyurethane finish will bring that red color back, but then the smell is gone, sealed inside.


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## woodshop (Nov 27, 2008)

Mike Van said:


> That looks just like our Eastern Red Cedar - Polyurethane finish will bring that red color back, but then the smell is gone, sealed inside.



Yup, from the way that tree is twisted up like that, and that deep pink color and aromatic smell, I'd call that one Eastern Red Cedar, which does grow as far as out your way Deeker. That red color fades to a dark reddish brown in sunlight, but I find if I put a good coat of something like Danish oil on it, which brings out that red color, and then cover it with lacquer, it stays reddish for a long time if you keep it out of direct Sun. I work a lot of this stuff, and the best thing about it is the whole shop as well as the whole house (I have a basement shop) smells like a cedar closet when I run this stuff through the planer and table saw. 

Thanks for the pics


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## Brmorgan (Nov 27, 2008)

That's some beautiful wood, but it's definitely NOT Western Red Cedar. It IS certainly one of three or four species of Juniper. If you got it from a wild tree, given your location I would put my money on it being a Utah Juniper. If not that, then I'd say it's a Rocky Mountain Juniper which also grows in your area. We have them here, and the trunks and heartwood look exactly like what you're working on. They very rarely reach that size here - it's uncommon so find any over 10" diameter, though according to my tree book they can grow up to 2' diameter and 50' tall. I've been meaning to grab a bunch of the biggest ones I can find to mill some T&G for lining blanket boxes etc., but they're hard to find dead on public land, and like you said they generally have a lot of bark pockets and inclusions due to the irregular shape so a log needs to be quite a bit bigger than the desired boards to get nice clear wood.

That same book shows the natural range of Eastern Red Cedar extending only out to the eastern border of Colorado, so I think it's unlikely that's it. Also Eastern Red is technically a Juniper and is not closely related to Western Red, though the bark and trunk shape tend to be similar and much straighter than other Junipers.


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## Texas Traveler (Nov 27, 2008)

Here in Central & NorthTexas. We have mountain cedar which is Juniper.
Old growth may reach 40 to 50 ft. in hight but less then 2 ft in Dia. here around Dallas in the hills south of town.

I brought some to a custom sawyer & asked him to try them so I could see the end results myself.
Man the 1/2 blade made short order of the 10 ft. post with a 8 inch top.
After 4 passes I was left with nothing that I could not stick a pencil through from the bark pockets.
Around this area they using Juniper for decor after water blasting the bark off.
Using at least a 4000 PSI power washer to do the job.


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## deeker (Nov 28, 2008)

True it is not a "cedar" but a Utah Mountain juniper. Just try selling it as juniper....most people don't know the difference.

Our local botanist is a rustic furniture maker. And he buys quite a bit from me. He believes the difference between the eastern and western.....is only its location.

We are trying to buy a bunch of it in one of our local canyons, along a small river. Many are over 28" dbh and sixty plus feet tall.

Love the smell when cutting it. 

More pics soon.

Kevin


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## Backwoods (Nov 29, 2008)

Good color to the wood no mater what it is. I picked up a couple of Juniper from the other side of the state the last time I was over there. If you can lock in a stand of trees like that with exclusive rights to it, you can pull some nice wood out of it.


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## Texas Traveler (Nov 29, 2008)

Backwoods said:


> Good color to the wood no mater what it is. I picked up a couple of Juniper from the other side of the state the last time I was over there. If you can lock in a stand of trees like that with exclusive rights to it, you can pull some nice wood out of it.



In most of Texas it is considered a invasive bush such as mesquite.
Most land owners will give you permission to harvest it on shares just to improve their grass range.
A few years back my wife & I were in San Antonio for the weekend I noticed mountains of wood chips in the hills a few miles North of town off of US 281.
The developers had stored this stull over the years I guess to make mulch.
About a year later we followed the news reports of the burning chip piles for weeks.
They have developed a single shank ripper that fits on a trackhoe to clear mountain cedar. A good operater can clear acres a day.


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## forestryworks (Nov 29, 2008)

Texas Traveler said:


> In most of Texas it is considered a invasive bush such as mesquite.
> Most land owners will give you permission to harvest it on shares just to improve their grass range.



+ 1

i just finished a clearcut for a landowner - 5 acres or so of cedar
got some nice logs out of it too


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## Zodiac45 (Nov 30, 2008)

deeker said:


> True it is not a "cedar" but a Utah Mountain juniper. Just try selling it as juniper....most people don't know the difference.
> 
> Our local botanist is a rustic furniture maker. And he buys quite a bit from me. He believes the difference between the eastern and western.....is only its location.
> 
> ...



Beautiful wood and nice job Kevin! Thanks for the pix. I can envision all kinds of stuff too make with that.


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