Perhaps surprisingly for such a soft wood, Eastern Red Cedar is reported to have a very high silica content. High silica content is well known to rapidly dull all types of cutters, so when working with Eastern Red Cedar, frequent sharpening of cutter blades will be an essential practice.
Eastern Red Cedar is reported to glue well.
Eastern Red Cedar is also reported to finish well, but more often than not, items made from Eastern Red Cedar are left unfinished because finishing can eliminate or impair the aromatic properties of this wood, which many find to be a source of prime appeal in using this particular wood.
Again, as the common name “Aromatic Red Cedar” implies and has been alluded to in this text previously, Eastern Red Cedar has a distinctive and tell-tale scent. Anyone who has once smelled this species is highly likely to recognize its scent when again exposed. The scent is due to an aromatic oil, which can be distilled from the wood and used as a fragrance. In addition, this oil is believed to actively repel moths and other insects and this accounts for the use of Eastern Red Cedar to line closets, chests, and other locations in which clothing or other materials potentially attractive to, and destroyed by, such moths and insects. Also, small pieces of Eastern Red Cedar may be purchased to be placed in drawers or closets in the belief that they will serve as repellents.
Pricing and Availability
As I have noted, large and/or clear sections of Aromatic Red Cedar are much less common, but smaller, narrower boards with knots present are readily available at a modest price.
Turning blanks of Eastern Red Cedar are slightly less common but certainly available at reasonable prices from select dealers.
I always recommend both West Penn Hardwoods and Bell Forest Products as excellent sources of both domestic and exotic hardwoods. I have had multiple dealings with both vendors and have always been very satisfied.
Unfortunately, West Penn Hardwoods is not offering Eastern Red Cedar at this time although they have done so in the past, at least in lumber format, and they may well do so again in the future.
Bell Forest Products stocks only Spanish Cedar, Cedrela odorata, which was listed in the first section of this post. While not considered a true cedar, it is a nice wood with which to work, even though it falls outside the scope of our present discussion.
I also do significant business with two relatively local merchants who specialize in the hardwoods of the southern United States and both currently offer Eastern Red Cedar.
The first vendor is NC Wood, based, as the name implies, in nearby North Carolina and the second are the gentlemen over at Got Wood? in, also nearby, South Carolina.
At this time, NC Wood offers a nice range of sizes and shapes of turning blanks, both spindle and bowl blank size, of Eastern Red Cedar. The largest bowl blank size, a fairly massive 10”x10”x4” is selling for the relatively low price of only $22.00. All other sizes sell for less, and in some cases considerably less, down into the single digits in fact, making this an excellent resource for obtaining this wood at a reasonable price to discover if you enjoy working with it.
Got Wood? also offers a very wide range of sizes, with plentiful stock on hand in many of those sizes, of Eastern Red Cedar, in both spindle and bowl blank formats. Prices for a bowl blank range from $2.89 up to $24.89, while spindles range in price from $4.33 to $18.67. Naturally, the larger the piece the higher the price. One advantage to buying bowl blanks from these guys is that all bowl blanks are sold round, so if you don’t have a band saw or other means to but to round this will eliminate that need for you from the start. Simply chuck up the blank, mount it on the lathe, and get to turning.