Curing Cedar for Coasters

[Marvin Jones]

I hope you guys don't mind me asking this non-turning question. I picked up some cedar yesterday, a few pieces are big enough to rough in bowls, but most are coaster size limbs. My wife has been after me for quite some time to cut her some coasters so now I can. I really don't know the best way to cure these after they are cut. I don't really want to put a sealer on them so the use of brown bags would probably be the best method, however, I really want them to be flat, don't want to have to sand them flat. I would really appreciate any advice you all have on this.
One of the benefits of picking up all of the coaster sized wood was when I started to leave he offered me the rest of the cedar still standing. I told him I don't normally cut trees down but this one is away from the house and there is about 20' of bowl size wood. I've never turned cedar and really don't know if bowls would be the best use of this size tree. I told him I had some wood on the ground not protected and needed to get it first turned then I would come get the tree...thanks for ideas on this too.
I read a post from 2005, bowls are nice looking, seems I will need to wear supplied air when second turning and sanding. Sawmill Creek had a posting concerning cedar issues, not much on coasters but good safety information. If the big cedar is not hollow I guess I'll rough out bowls with it.

 

[Steve Chaplin]

Cedar makes great bowls, very pretty wood. It tends to get bark inclusions so it may require epoxy fills.
Cedar is more irritating for mucus membrane than other woods. A good dust mask (N95 or better) is sufficient. I also run a dust collector.
For coasters I would cut cookies on the bandsaw, dry them in triple brown paper bags, then sand them using a belt sander.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Thanks Steve, appreciate the advice.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I have to assume that you are referring to juniper which is sold as red cedar or aromatic cedar. The cutting of juniper into cookies may or may not work as it could develop radial cracks. The method I have used is to cut the cookies on the band saw then saw thru the pith and dry, then when dry true up the cut edges and glue back together. The first pic is a keepsake Urn turned from the full round (with the pith) and the second is coasters made from northern red oak limb wood and you can see by the oval shaped center that they were made using the method I described.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Thanks Don, I really appreciate the advice, have a Rikon 18" saw and new blades coming, will research to make a sled for accurate slices. Have found a jig I like on the forum for bowls. My present blade wobbles because I freehanded things I should not have.
The urn is stunning, would love to start making something that beautiful but that is a skill set and set of tools that I do not have, at least the hollowing. I will do some as you suggest, then slice the same number whole and store them for curing to get a percentage of success of different methods. The coasters are exactly what I want, they look great!

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've turned Eastern Red Cedar (real name Juniper virginiana) nice smelling (to me) and gorgeous red color when freshly cut/turned, both will diminish in fairly short time.

The wood turns real nice, but it likes to check, careful drying in a brown paper bag will avoid this, I have a couple pictures here that show the fresh color and the changed color.

LOML likes to use the shavings for the aroma, keeping the unused shavings in bags will extend the smell, keeping the wood out of the light will also extend the nice color.

I do have a couple of the later shots of a candle stick and a bud vase, that shows the difference of the color later on.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Thank you Leo, beautiful pieces, was offered the main trunk of the tree, which best I remember is about 20"-25' long, ranging from about 10" thick to to maybe 18" to 24" at the base. Don't usually like to cut trees but feel owner would be appreciative and possibly unable to pay to have it done. Would benefit both of us. Will produce many bags of shavings from saw and turning. Your pieces helped me make up my mind, will go after trunk after getting a few trunk pieces of pecan roughed in, coated and stored that I was unable to wrap in plastic because of size and weight.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Thanks Don, I really appreciate the advice, have a Rikon 18" saw and new blades coming, will research to make a sled for accurate slices. Have found a jig I like on the forum for bowls. My present blade wobbles because I freehanded things I should not have.
The urn is stunning, would love to start making something that beautiful but that is a skill set and set of tools that I do not have, at least the hollowing. I will do some as you suggest, then slice the same number whole and store them for curing to get a percentage of success of different methods. The coasters are exactly what I want, they look great!
View attachment 43264

I made a curved cradle about 6" wide and 18" long and attached it to the cross cut guide on my band saw since I already have to big of a collection of kinked blades. The other thing you could do with small pieces is to cut them into boards, dry them and use for segmenting as in this picture.

 

[Tom Gall]

Just a note of caution - don't know if all cedars/junipers are the same or similar in the irritant department as Steve mentions. A member of our club turned Eastern Red Cedar almost exclusively for a number of years. Don't know what kind of PPE he used, other than a paper mask, but he suddenly discovered he had stage 4 lung cancer and died within a few weeks. Take precautions !!!
Here's a photo (taken in 2014) of an ERC piece that started to lose its brilliant colors.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Thanks Tom, I have asthma so have to be careful. I have an supplied air turbine in another room in the house and my air is hosed into the shop to a half mask respirator for working with dry wood and finishing. It may be losing it's color but it sure looks great.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

This is the cross cut jig that I have and I think it is safe for fingers and blades as long as the work piece is solidly supported without any rocking or rolling. Another standard rule that I follow is to ease it into the cut with your left hand on the handle, your right hand on the work piece at least 6" clear of the blade and your body to the right of the blade. If you want to get down to a smaller scrap you will need to come up with a way to clamp log so you can keep your body parts safely clear of the blade.

Here is some cookies I cut in in November (note there were 3 layers in the record) where you can see the value of cutting through the pith.

And this is what I had to dig through to get to my shop to take these photos the shop is the building on the left and the drift over the sidewalk is over 4" deep.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Just a note of caution - don't know if all cedars/junipers are the same or similar in the irritant department as Steve mentions. A member of our club turned Eastern Red Cedar almost exclusively for a number of years. Don't know what kind of PPE he used, other than a paper mask, but he suddenly discovered he had stage 4 lung cancer and died within a few weeks. Take precautions !!!
Here's a photo (taken in 2014) of an ERC piece that started to lose its brilliant colors.

The piece in the attached photo does not look like the juniper that I have ever seen. The grain pattern and color is different

 

[Marvin Jones]

If we were to get a snow like that here in the Delta our world would absolutely shut down. We usually get ice storms. Speaking of that, weatherman just said we have a chance of one Thursday...That segmented piece is beautiful, what did you do to it so it keeps that deep color? Questions, questions...Okay, I see it now, you have the extra board laying on you fence for support of longer pieces. I think that would work for me as well. Thanks for those pictures and the trouble you went through to get them, not like slipping on the house shoes and easing out there. So you put the cookies in something to slow dry without putting a coating on them? I ran across some 1/4" polycarbonate sheets and cut my wife some cake sheets and she has not started using them. I could probably get away with stacking layers of cookies on these inside a garbage bag, should help keep them flat. Have about 10 of them, that would about fill up a trash bag...Thanks so much for all your help and inspiration!

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

That segmented piece is beautiful, what did you do to it so it keeps that deep color?

It is just 3 coats of Watco brushing lacquer sprayed on.

So you put the cookies in something to slow dry without putting a coating on them? I ran across some 1/4" polycarbonate sheets and cut my wife some cake sheets and she has not started using them. I could probably get away with stacking layers of cookies on these inside a garbage bag, should help keep them flat. Have about 10 of them, that would about fill up a trash bag...

The cookies were cut and placed on wafer board without any coating or covering just like you see them in the picture.

If we were to get a snow like that here in the Delta our world would absolutely shut down. We usually get ice storms.

Hey we live near the same stream as I am only about ten miles from Lake Itasca.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Well I guess I could paddle upstream a bit and come see you...

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Well I guess I could paddle upstream a bit and come see you...

Let me know when and I will come and pick you up but you should wait a few months because the water is a little stiff right now.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Yeah and my canoe is not heated...

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Yeah and my canoe is not heated...

The canoe would be good for portaging due the last locks are at St. Paul.

 

[Marvin Jones]

I can't remember how far north I've been on the river, worked on riverboats and was a tankerman in my twenties, hated all those locks on the upper. In the summertime water was low and I think there were 33 locks starting at St. Louis. Many of those dams were low water and would only be raised to keep the upper Mississippi river traffic going. Only had to lock thru when they were raised. Not a big deal going north loaded at 3 mph but coming down empty at 20 or so kept one from any normal sleep...

 

[Tom Gall]

The piece in the attached photo does not look like the juniper that I have ever seen. The grain pattern and color is different

That's because it is Eastern Red Cedar. When fairly fresh the swirling colors range from pink/red through purples.
The photo was taken several years after the piece was turned.

 

[Marvin Jones]

And this is what I had to dig through to get to my shop to take these photos the shop is the building on the left and the drift over the sidewalk is over 4" deep.

Don, I see your snow storm and raise you two ice storms, second one will be here this evening. Only got one limb on my new roof...My shop is under the closest gable to the pool. Very lucky this time, temperature stayed around 32 so everything in the air got coated with ice but ground was warm enough to melt it.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Don, I see your snow storm and raise you two ice storms, second one will be here this evening. Only got one limb on my new roof...My shop is under the closest gable to the pool. Very lucky this time, temperature stayed around 32 so everything in the air got coated with ice but ground was warm enough to melt it.
View attachment 43320

That don't work because there were 3 snow falls and then the wind came up that caused the drifts in my photo.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Well, thank goodness the last one panned out so you are way ahead...the ice storms are bad on everyone but there is a bright side, I have more wood than I know what to do with, I know the turners in Memphis are overwhelmed as well.