Eastern Red Cedar

[DanJohnston]

I've received a 12'x6"x15" plank that was cut last week. It's wet. The miller said to coat it with clear water based paint and it will retain it's color. It's going up as a fireplace mantle so not too concerned about shrinkage or cracks. Anyone worked green ERC and have some suggestions for keeping the red color from going brown.

thanks
dan

 

[Roy G]

Dan, try to keep bright light off it. If cedar acts like cherry, the light seems to darken it and bright light darkens it really quickly. A clear finish might slow it down, but it can't keep the darkening from happening totally.

Roy G

 

[Ken Massingale]

Several thin coats (wiped is my method) of Zinsser dewaxed shellac. I've put in several ERC mantles over the last few years and all of them still look like shiny fresh cut cedar. I usually wipe on 8-10 real thin coats, it dries fast so a couple of days and it's ready.
I do so many coats because the first few soak into the grain before starting to build.
The dewaxed won't give the amber hue and change the cedar color much at all.

 

[DanJohnston]

I don't know if cedar is photocromatic like cherry, suspect it is. Ken, should the wood be dry before shellacing? This is a very green hunk of wood. I'm guessing it will have to dry for at least 2-4 years.

 

[Ken Massingale]

I don't know if cedar is photocromatic like cherry, suspect it is. Ken, should the wood be dry before shellacing? This is a very green hunk of wood. I'm guessing it will have to dry for at least 2-4 years.

Dan I'm no expert, I'll just say whay I have experienced.

As far as the drying time, ERC has Cedar oil, not really sap like Oak, Maple, etc. I've found the drying time much less than other woods. The last mantle I did was finished 6 weeks from being a tree to installed mantle. It was resawed to 3" thick from the log, stored in my shop for about 2 weeks with the ends sealed, then processed down to 2" thick. A few days later I started applying the shellac. That was 8 months ago and it still looks great.

As for the color change, below are some pics comparing aged ERC to raw:

A bandsaw box I did about 6 years ago finished with Formsbys Tung Oil Finish (I like to leave sapwood for contrast)

A piece I resawed about 5 years ago that has been sitting in the wood rack doing nothing.
No finish, raw resaw:

The other side fresh sanded to raw new wood: