Red Cedar Qualities
As a person who has logged, grown, sold, cut, planed, used 1000's of board feet of Red Cedar I am following the discussion trying to understand what specific grade of cedar we are talking about. From the Washington Loggers viewpoint we sell cedar w/o grade unlike Doug Fir, hemlock or any other species. Cedar is commanding very high prices in Washington with most of it going to fencing. I sold a large (200M bd ft) lot to a mill in Montesano who converted the who thing to fencing and "allocated it" to their buyers. Another lot I sold to a mill in Pe Ell WA and it all went to a single distributor in Kansas City. This was labeled as Canadian Cedar since it was contracted by a Canandian company. All of this was second growth cedar with growth rings less that 8 per inch. I collect and cut old growth cedar on my tree farm and use it mostly for foundation wood in 2x6, 2x8 dimentions. Old growth will have up to 50 rings per inch and can be very brittle. Many of those old trees of legend shattered when they fell. Second growth is not so brittle. So my question is what type of wood did the canoe makers buy back in the early to late 1900's, 2nd growth or old growth? Either way. red cedar can easily be found in 20' lengths 12" wide and clear. In the high production mills it is inconsequetial what cut is made, vertical or flat grain. On a small mill, band saw or head saw, you can cut what you want. That said, I have a barn I built and sided with red cedar some years ago and wonder if I should be taking the boards off for canoes?
Tim
