Thread: uses for atlantic blue cedar

Originally Posted by hugh reid2

Hi
just taken down a large atlantic blue cedar...
what sort of things are the timber good for?

I had never heard of atlantic blue cedar, Hugh, but did a little research. Apparently it is also called Atlas cedar and its latin name is Cedrus atlantica. But I couldn't find anything useful on the timber of this species.

However, many authorities suggest the C Atlantica is actually a subspecies of C libani, the Cedar of Lebanon - the tree that features on the flag of Lebanon. There is a lot of available information on the Lebanese cedar.
Cedar of Lebanon | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Softwood)

However, common names and nursery names are notoriously variable. May I suggest that you research whether your tree is actually a Cedar of Lebanon and go from there.

cedar.jpg

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I had never heard of atlantic blue cedar, Hugh, but did a little research.
...
However, common names and nursery names are notoriously variable. May I suggest that you research whether your tree is actually a Cedar of Lebanon and go from there.

Hugh, you ticked the box that you want pictures. Pictures of what? I do not have any Cedar of lebanon.

Someone gave me a couple of boards of Atlantic cedar many years ago - I used it to make some (very) aromatic drawer-bottoms. The odour is powerful (stronger than camphor laurel) & persists for a very long time, so it needs to be the right context....

Cheers,

You can use cedrus atlantica for just about anything
This is a little shaker style table I made a couple of years back, mostly hand plane work.
Do not put Atlas Blue Cedar through a drum sander, the abrasive will just gum up.
It is really just fancy pine with a lot of aromatic oil in it.

The finish was homebrewed danish oil

The ACT Woodcraft Guild have about 30 slabs of it (1.6m * 300mm * 50mm) in the timber storage container. The Beginners seem to like it OK.

I dragged out a few slabs of cedrus atlantica today and machined them up for a bloke to do a clamp rack project. The photos give a fair representation of what it looks like straight off the machine. his stuff was cut about 2 years ago, air dried for a year, finish dried to10% in our solar kiln, then stored for the last 8 to10 months as 50mm thick slabs in a shipping container