Northern White Cedar

Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis)

Common Name(s): Northern White Cedar, Eastern Arborvitae

Scientific Name: Thuja occidentalis

Distribution: Northeastern North America

Tree Size: 50 ft (15 m) tall, 2 ft (.6 m) trunk diameter

Average Dried Weight: 22 lbs/ft³ (350 kg/m³)

Basic Specific Gravity: .29

Hardness: 320 lb_f (1,420 N)

Rupture Strength: 6,500 lb_f/in² (44,830 kPa)

Elastic Strength: 800,000 lb_f/in² (5,520 MPa)

Crushing Strength: 3,960 lb_f/in² (27.3 MPa)

Shrinkage: Radial: 2.2%, Tangential: 4.9%, Volumetric: 7.2%, T/R Ratio: 2.2

Color/Appearance: Heartwood is a pale brown or tan color, while the narrow sapwood is nearly white. Numerous small knots are common in the wood.

Grain/Pore: Grain is usually straight, with a fine, even grain, and closed pores.

Durability: Rated as durable to very durable regarding decay resistance; also resistant to termites and powder post beetles.

Workability: Northern White Cedar has good overall working characteristics, and works easily with both hand and machine tools. However, the wood is both soft and weak, giving it poor screw-holding capabilities. Northern White Cedar glues and finishes well.

Scent: Northern White Cedar has a distinct, spicy, cedar-like smell when being worked.

Safety: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Northern White Cedar has been reported to cause skin irritation, runny nose, as well as asthma-like symptoms. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.

Price/Availability: Prices can vary depending on domesticity of the tree, but overall, prices should be modest.

Comments: In tree form, Thuja occidentalis is commonly referred to as Eastern Arborvitae—or simply just Arborvitae—and is widely used as an ornamental tree, with hundreds of different cultivars in existence.

Perhaps the closest thing to Balsa that the United States has domestically, Northern White Cedar is one of the very lightest and softest of commercially available woods in the country. Yet the greatest value of this wood is not merely in its lightness, but in its resistance to decay, lending it to many exterior applications.

Some common uses of Northern White Cedar include: fences, posts, shingles, piles, canoes, outdoor furniture, railroad ties, and pulpwood.