[cedarshavings]

What are some opinions about cedar? I don't hear too much about carvings out of cedar. I love the look of cedar and just wondered if it creates a problem for carvings?

[pallin]

I have some cedar I picked up in Nicaragua. It has a beautiful red color and is fairly hard. The heartwood is very different from the sapwood. I carved a monogram wall plaque which is mostly sapwood. I'll post a photo sometime soon. In the U.S. cedar seems to be a lot like redwood - too spongy, stringy - with a strong tendency to split.
Pallin

[mikeg]

I've carved cedar a couple of times though usually I carve Basswood. I find that with cedar, you have to be much more careful about the grain. In fact, there are times where I'd swear I have to carve the opposite direction compared to if I was carving basswood. I love the smell when I'm carving cedar. The cedar I've carved has a 'dry' feel to it. I don't know if that's just the pieces I was working or if it's standard to cedar.


mikeg

[whitecree]

Red cedar, thuja plicata, does have a tendency to split easily. This is one of the attractive things about it to the peoples of the west coast. You could split a long plank easily from a living tree.

Carving-wise, it is still not a bad wood. Yes, it does tend to be a coarse grained wood, but if you are patient and make a thourough search, you can find some that is relatively fine grained.


Even fine-grained red cedar will be a challenge if you learned your carving on basswood or other such wood found in carving supply stores. The nature of the wood tends to dull tools quickly, so you will need to 'touch up' your knives or whatever fairly often.

Grain colour ranges from pale reddish brown to dark brown and almost black, depending on age of wood and where it was stored while drying. I agree with you 200% Cedarshavings, I love the way the wood looks. It is also tremendously useful and can be used almost anywhere; a short list of uses are - spoons, bowls, walking sticks, masks, canoes, paddles. Even the soft inner bark is useful.
Yellow cedar is a whole other critter. Harder, finer grained, and comes in smaller tree sizes. Much easier to carve, but the grain patterns are not as interesting.

[pallin]

I have now posted a photo of the Nicarguan cedar chip carving called "monogram" and also a large redwood carving called "Symmetry."

[DADDIO]

i do alot of spirit faces in cedar,i love the effect of the different colors and though it can be tricky to carve i really like the results

[falconer]

Cedarshavings, When I first started carving decoy rigs twenty some years ago I'd use white cedar. It was very easy to carve and smelled great!! I would think that you could carve any type of cedar and it would be really great. It's pretty resistant to bugs and weather also.






www.sierracreekstudios.com

[Ron Davidson]

The Mill carving that I recently did was carved from Spanish Cedar. You do have to be careful of grain direction but I kind of liked carving it and they say the color is beautiful. To me it will hold some detail better than Basswood.

[mark yundt]

Ron,,you're right about the spanish cedar,,the color is great ( much like mahogany) ,,carves like its some sort of dense foam,very easy,,and the detail and clean up is much better than bass. Just shows more pores.Personally it's one of my favorites.If it's really fresh,,the smell can get to you.As far as other cedars go,,I like them all,carve well,,tend to be a bit splintery as the others pointed out,,but generally O.K.

[Thomp]

All the cedar i carved, was stringy grained, cracked easily and small details flaked off to easy, ears nose and fingers,
but it was salvaged from local trees blown down in the early april - march winds, usualy pretty knotty, the in town trees i can get to are small and not much hartwood comes out of them,,

but i have turned a few on the lathe and love the bowles and flower vases ive made.
i love it becuse, momma cleans the shop for me to get the cedar shavings, pokes them in an old pair of panty hose which she promptly hangs in all the closets then the smell of the cedar woods fills the house,,,,

sorry i couldnt add something positive