 Aromatic Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
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Common Name(s): Aromatic Red Cedar, Eastern Redcedar Scientific Name: Juniperus virginiana Distribution: Eastern North America Tree Size: 100-115 ft (30-35 m) tall, 3-4 ft (1-1.2 m) trunk diameter Average Dried Weight: 33 lbs/ft3 (535 kg/m3) Hardness: 900 lbf (4,000 N) Rupture Strength: 8,800 lbf/in2 (60,690 kPa) Elastic Strength: 880,000 lbf/in2 (6,070 MPa) Crushing Strength: – lbf/in2 (- MPa) Shrinkage: Radial: 3.1%, Tangential: 4.7%, Volumetric: 7.8%, T/R Ratio: 1.5 |
Color/Appearance: Heartwood tends to be a reddish or violet-brown. Sapwood is a pale yellow color, and can be appear throughout the heartwood as streaks and stripes.
Grain/Pore: Has a straight grain, usually with knots present. Has a very fine texture with closed pores.
Durability: Regarded as excellent in resistance to both decay and insect attack, Aromatic Red Cedar is frequently used for fence posts used in direct ground contact with no pre-treating of the wood.
Workability: Overall, Aromatic Red Cedar is easy to work, notwithstanding any knots or irregularities present in the wood. It reportedly has a high silica content, which can dull cutters. Aromatic Red Cedar glues and finishes well, though in many applications, the wood is left unfinished to preserve its aromatic properties.
Scent: Aromatic Red Cedar has a distinct and tell-tale scent: the wood is commonly used in closets and chests to repel moths and other insects.
Safety: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Aromatic Red Cedar has been reported to cause skin and respiratory irritation. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.
Price/Availability: 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.
Comments: Although commonly referred to as “cedar,” Aromatic Red Cedar technically isn’t considered a true cedar, and is classified in the genus Juniperus, among the junipers. In tree form, it is more commonly called Eastern Redcedar, while the wood itself is usually referred to as Aromatic Red Cedar.
Though Eastern Redcedar trees are widely distributed throughout the eastern half of the United States, it is a very slow-growing species, and most trees harvested tend to be fairly small in diameter. Because of this, Aromatic Red Cedar boards tend to be knotty and narrow.
Some common uses for Aromatic Red Cedar include: fence posts, closet and chest linings, carvings, outdoor furniture, pencils, bows, and small wooden specialty items.
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Aromatic Red Cedar (sanded) |
 Aromatic Red Cedar (sealed) |
 Aromatic Red Cedar (endgrain) |
 Aromatic Red Cedar (foliage) |
October 19th, 2010 at 3:29 am
I made a custom floor in my 49 chevy pickup of 3/8 aromatic cedar t&g and sealed it with linseed oil. The oil picks up dirt and I just finished sanding it back to natural. What can I use to seal this wood? Bill
October 19th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Bill, a lot will depend on how much durability you’re after, and what type of look that you want. You could use Polyurethane for better protection, and if you only use a few coats of satin it could still look natural. Otherwise pile on some glossy coats for maximum protection.
For the most minimal finish, you could just seal it with shellac. I prefer to mix my own, but I know Zinsser SealCoat is a good product; just make sure the date on the bottom of the can is less than a year old.
November 9th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
In my experience red cedar likes evaporative finishes like shellac or lacquer much more that curative finishes like any sort of oil based product. Linseed oil, polyurethane, spar varnish and such can remain tacky for a long time or adhear poorly due to red cedar’s high resin content. That’s why it has a strong smell. Same goes for “heart pine” as far as finishes, especially if the wood has streaks of “fat lighter” in it. If a wood has a strong “resiny” smell use shellac or lacquer. You can also seal the wood with a dewaxed shellac and then pile on an oil finish. Most any finish will stick to dewaxed shellac.
November 10th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Kyle, I’ve had the very same experiences with oily tropical woods too. I have a feeling that the oils in the wood somehow change the chemistry of the finish, so that polyurethane and other reactive finishes simply will not cure… ever. They just stay gummy. Again, sealing with several coats of shellac seemed to remedy this, and allowed me to then use polyurethane as a more durable topcoat. (I really should write an article about all of this.)