Red Cedar

[MAPLEMAN]

Here's some pics of Australian 'Red Cedar'
Provenance, Danbulla forest,North Queensland
This piece was sourced from an 'old growth ' tree
Note the color in some sections is almost black
Lovely piece i reckon
Carved into a shell if anyone is wondering :)...MM:2tsup:

[wood spirit]

gorgeous wood and carving -what sort of size?

[MAPLEMAN]

Around 600mm long Woodspirit...MM

[rustynail]

Them old trees take the biscuit.

[MAPLEMAN]

Them old trees take the biscuit.They do indeed R.N :)
The tree had fallen onto freehold land adjoining what is now a 'Wet Tropics' area,back in the early 80's,and was keenly salvaged by the landowner
The area was declared 'World Heritage' in 1988
It contains a fair bit of Red Cedar and some very impressive specimens are contained within its boundaries.
Kauri creek camping area has numerous walking tracks,one of which leads to a massive Red Cedar but of 'paddock' form (Big chunky Butt)
Remember milling a Red Cedar that was growing in a paddock (on private property)on the edge of Lake Barrine National park
The butt produced slabs 6m long x 1600mm wide and around 20m3 of log was milled from the tree all up...i am presently looking for the pics i took of it to post :)
Cracker of a tree with beautiful color!
All up harvested around 12 trees on that property around 1000mm girth and better
We left many behind to grow on and mature...MM:2tsup:

[rustynail]

They are sweet memories we are blessed to have MM. I remember an old tree that was uprooted by a land slide. I had to take a 900mm wing split off it so the log would fit under the band saw! Our bandsaw has a 1540mm high throat. So that made the log 2400mm dia as there was only 40mm clearance as she went through.
Beautiful timber, steep site and sth wst aspect- a real slow grower. On an annual ring count, she was back to Captain Cook and still had plenty of wood back to the heart.
What I would call a once in a lifetime tree.
Like you, I prefer to leave smaller trees to reach their full potential. In fact, in the case of cedar, I prefer to leave any unthreated tree. It never ceases to amaze me how these old trees, when approaching their demise, will lay down an abundance of highly fertile seed, with an exceptionally high strike rate, producing a virtual forest of young trees to carry on.

[chambezio]

I had a dear old mate give me a few small pieces of Red Cedar. He was a Carpenter/ Builder who worked his whole life around Nowendoc, in the Walcha area NSW. He at one stage did some "scouting for the hardwood mill there. He would drive as far as he was able the go on foot to find suitable saw logs for the mill. He said at the right time of the year if you got on high ground that let you see across valleys you could pick the Cedars out (Deciduous I think)

The couple of small pieces he gave me were from a very old tree. One piece was a light tan colour and the other was deep red, so deep you could hardly see the rings in it. He told me the darker one was from the same tree but from a root. The mate is dead now but he had some interesting tales to tell of building complete houses in the bush without electricity as well as the trials and tribulations he had with a dozer making roads and loading mill logs.

Just on a side note, he led us on a four wheel drive trip into "his backyard"(the areas he used to work in). We can upon a fence 1800 mm high made with large size "chicken" wire. He said it was a fence erected by a group of Irishmen all by hand. It started down near Singleton up in the hills (Barrington) and went up the Great Divide to (I think) near Casino?. He said it was to stop the Dingos coming into coastal areas and causing havoc. This fence is in the ruggedest terrain you could imagine. Steep, rocky, scubby those Irishmen should have gotten a medal for there toil

[rustynail]

It's actually the new red growth that stands out from the green of the surrounding eucs etc. A standing dead or leafless tree is still very difficult to spot in dense timber. Dead trees are found by walking into them, sometimes literally, as the understory can be thick enough to stall a dozer.
I probably know your old mate.