Thread: If this is Australian Red Cedar - should I restore it or sell it raw?

Hi Greg- Aust Cedar is still available on a reasonable scale and not too difficult to purchase cost effectively.

Given the ornate detail as shown, these furniture pieces would take a considerable amount of time and work to make in the first instance.

I would think best kept intact and restore 'as is' without resorting to selling off for the timber value.

Cheers,C.R.

There is very little salvageable, useful timber resulting from scrapping furniture items like those. You could get a few pieces from the tops suitable for box making or similar but their value as timber pieces would be low.

The bed head may be a different story - a common style used big flat boards joined lengthways with some carvings appliquéd on. That style of bed head did yield useful pieces, especially the doubles.

Also, some pieces may be surian, a near-relative of ARC from Asia. The style of the jointing on the drawers looks like the type of Asian cedar repro furniture that was common 20 or so years ago. Surian is very like cedar but softer and woollier.

Arron, C.R.; this is particularly helpful experience, thanks. I'll press on with restoring the small pieces then consider the bead-head - it is a single (perhaps joined boards) slab, so once the white paint's removed I'll follow-up.
Cheers
Greg

Originally Posted by Arron

... Also, some pieces may be surian, a near-relative of ARC from Asia. The style of the jointing on the drawers looks like the type of Asian cedar repro furniture that was common 20 or so years ago. Surian is very like cedar but softer and woollier.

I will also back Aarons judgement on this:

• dovetails look machine cut,
• hand cut dovetails almost always have narrow cut pins,
• those nested tables were popular from Hong Kong and Indonesia from 1960's through 1990's,
• bedside cabinet proportions scream mass produced,
• nothing has any evidence of a long life.

If you like it, then please go ahead and restore it, But I do not think you should get excited by it. It is probably Indonesian repro made in the last 50 years.

Thanks Graeme, this is particularly helpful advice. I'm visiting a local antiques/reno store to cast an eye over them - would be nice to know origin and timber and value; they're not my style so may end up in a more appreciative home.
Cheers
Greg.