"red cedar"

[SDeacon]

For a number of years I have been purchasing a red cedar from Matthews Timber and Australian Furniture Timbers. I was under the impression that it is called Kalantis (not sure about the spelling though) and that it grows in south east asian countries. Several of my students are wanting to use it (it is attractive ane reasonably priced) and I want to find out as much about the timber as possible. eg botanical name, properties, qualities etc. Can anyone help. I have been to the excellent website ForestWorld but am still none the wiser. Thanks.

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[John Saxton]

As quoted from the book 'Wood in Australia ' by Keith R Bootle :-
Cedar,Red (Toona Austalis)
Synonym: (Cedrela Toona )
1.A large hardwood of occasional occurrence in the coastal rainforests of eastern Australia,extending to Papua New Guinea,south-east Asia and as far as India.
Now scarce in Australia forests and commercial supplies are frequently of imported timber.The tree is easy to grow but the growing tip is susceptible to attack by a moth larva;this makes it difficult to produce a straight stem for timber purposes.Red Cedar is one of the few deciduous trees of the Australian rainforest.

2.Heartwood pale to dark red,depending largely on the maturity of the wood.Sapwood very pale pink or yellow and distinctive from the heartwood.Texture rather coarse and uneven due to the ring porous nature of the wood.Grain straight or slightly interlocked.
Distinctive odour, said to repel moths.

3.GD About 640kg/cub metre;ADD( Air dry density ) about 420kg/cub metre for mature wood.

4.Easy to dry but needs careful stacking to avoid cupping.Some collapse can occur.Shrinkage about 2% radial,4% tangential;after reconditioning about 1.5% radial,3% tangential.

5.Soft and relatively easy to work but inclined to give a "woolly" cut.Nails and glues well.

6.Heartwood durable (class 2 )but this valuable timber is too scarce to be applied to external use.Sapwood very susceptible to lyctid borer attack.

7.SD8,and provisionally S7;fast grown timber seems to have at least as good,probably better,mechanical properties than the average material from large logs.

8.Uses;furniture, panelling, decorative veneer, boatbuilding, carving.

9.Scarce in local forests but small quantities are being imported.

Hope this is of help to you,the book itself goes into more detail about the mechanical properties and I have not detailed these.
Cheers http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif


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Johnno

[Dod]

I can vouch for the difficulty of growing. I have several red cedar I have planted, and they are all are constantly attacked at the tips. Forestry say there is nothing will fix it.
Dod



[This message has been edited by ubeaut (edited 14 June 2001).]

[ubeaut]

Kalantis (Toona kalantis as opposed to Toona Austalis) I think you will find it is a SE Asian versian of the Aussie stuff. I believe much of it is now being grown in plantations which accounts for the fact that there are not a lot of really wide boards available. If you do get wide boards they are usually from the old growth forests a bit ecologically naughty.

As a rule it is much lighter in colour than the Australian version, however it does darken to look almost identical. Because of its high tannin content it can be chamically darkened (aged) with potasium bichromate to look identical to old cedar ina matter of minutes. I used to use a lot of it in carvings for restoration work. It is much easier and better to carve than the local wood.

As a rule if it has a good tight grain structure and is not woolly, it is Kalantis. There is also a cedar that is often sold under the name of Malayan Cedar. This is usually much softer and really woolly. Avoid it like the plague. It is terrible to work. Almost impossible to plane and if cut with anything less than a razor sharp chisel will collapse liht cork. When sanded it will go furry on the surface no matter how well you sand.

Hope this is of some further help.

Cheers - Neil

[AlexS]

Is this Siruyan cedar Neil? It seems to have similar characteristics - furry etc.

[Bob Whitworth]

I grow red cedar here on my farm and I'd like to think that our Australian red cedar is of considerablely higher quality that the imported cedar. It has better density, wood finish qualities, and colour just to mention a few things. Yes there is a problem sith the tip moth borer but it just reduces their growth particularly as a young tree but as it gets older it doesn't seem to matter. If anyone wants some cedar they are welcome to contact me. Bob Whitworth

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[RFINK]

Well, I (ex-NSW red cedar fan)went to the hardware store here in Port Moresby to buy some ordinary old structural, thin timber for some brackets I was about to make and, lo and behold, there was a pile of red cedar on the `ordinary old timber shelf'. I bought it of course and, call it kalantis or whatever you like, it smells exactly the same, works just the same, varies in colour just the same (although does tend to be lighter, I think). Seems like almost exactly the same timber to me!