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thomis

working with cedar

thomis
14 years ago

Hello again friends, I have a few general questions..

I'm about to start working with some cedar that I had cut into a planks back in January 2008. I think its been ample time for the boards to cure. The trees that I took to the mill were not very big though. The majority of the boards have the white-ish part of the outer wood, that part outside the red heartwood, along the edges of each plank. Are there any tips you can share about working with this type of board? I wish they were all solid red but the trees just weren't large enough diameter.

I have two projects planned for the cedar. One is a coffee table, which I will use the few boards that are solid red for the table top. The other project will be a blanket chest for the foot of the bed. This is the project that I'll use the cedar boards with the white and red wood.

As far as finishing, I obviously won't want to stain but would I just sand smooth and then poly? I've never worked with cedar.

Lastly, I have a workshop table that I've been finishing. Its nothing fancy but.. I've already stained it with an oil-based stain. Then, I've applied two coats of the so-called tung oil. I'm wondering if I can apply two more coats of tung oil and then top it all off with a hard drying poly? Will the poly be ok over the tung oil (aka varnish) finish?

Thanks for any advice,

Thomis

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