[Woodcarver] Fwd: cedar info.

[George Farrell]

Hi

   Here in North Carolina there are 2 kinds of cedar --- red and  
white.   The red is the one used
to line cedar closets.  The white is used to plank wooden boats.  The  
red is VERY hard, brittle and
splits easily.  When carved with a very sharp knife, the knife leaves  
a nearly polished surface
behind in the red and it carves clean without fuzzies.  The white  
cedar is only a little harder than basswood
and so it carves fairly easily.  It is a little brittle and splits  
easily.  It does not tend to
leave a highly polished surface behind the sharp knife and it tends to  
leave fuzzies in corners.  For
teaching carving, it is actually ideal because it is dirt cheap -- if  
you can find a sawyer in
your locale, he is likely to give you the outside slabs just to get  
rid of them.  This is the
stuff that you can find in Lowe's for siding boards -- thing is you  
can get those boards from the
local sawyer in far better quality -- like being nearly knot free.   
For religious carving, I would
choose white cedar bought from a local sawyer for its ease of working  
and because it leaves a nicely
colored surface.  The fuzzies in the corners can be removed with a  
power tool like a Foredom or a
Dremel armed with a flame shaped diamond burr.   I use a lot of the  
white cedar for making Xmas tree ornaments.

George Farrell



On Aug 13, 2012, at 6:18 AM, Matt Kelley wrote:


>

>

>> From: irmar125 at aol.com

>> Date: August 13, 2012 12:47:29 AM

>> Subject: Re: cedar info.

>>

>> I started doing religious low relief carvings,and I noticed in some  

>> that I saw were done in cedar how does cedar compare to basswood in  

>> carving and price? Where would be the best place to buy some,(a  

>> place like Lowe's) or on the Internet thanks,for any help       

>> Irwin Reisman   irmar125 at aol.com


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