Thread: Red Cedar for pens

Definitely a Shellawax finish - its missing the lustre that comes with CA.

I hope you didn't offer to cut it up into pen blanks for them!

hahahah, thats seriously made me reconsider my red cedar stuff, i've made a couple of dubious 1/4 sawn red cedar pens (early ones, but not so old as 800bc), and they look ok, not perfect, but just ok. heaven forbid they turn up in an archaelogical find in 2812 years....

thats awesome pariss, nice find, and we worry about finishes, and joints, and machines and tools...makes you think huh.

Neal.

PS: does the wood look like our red cedar today?..did it patima any?...and makes you wonder what finish they had on it, and so much more?...ohh what blank it'd make (slap my bandsaw hand, norti boy)....

[QUOTE=thompy;
PS: does the wood look like our red cedar today?..did it patima any?...and makes you wonder what finish they had on it, and so much more?.

Hey Neal. Not that I'm any expert on timber, but as soon as I saw the coffin, I picked it straight away as Red Cedar, and lo and behold, it actually was. The finish was pretty rough, as tho it had been sanded with say 60 grit paper. You should go check out the display, it really is a once in a lifetime thing, as it will be returning to the British Museum soon. Lots of various wood working artifacts from the tombs, also made with Red Cedar.

Definitely not the same as our Aus Red Cedar though. As for sand paper, I'd say the real deal sanding, ie with a handful of sand

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Definitely not the same as our Aus Red Cedar though. As for sand paper, I'd say the real deal sanding, ie with a handful of sand

Hi Neil. I wonder what species of Red Cedar they actually used. I did ask the official attendant, but I might as well have asked the Mummy

Google reveals all
Lebanon cedar or Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani subsp. libani or var. libani) - grows in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, northwest Jordan, western Syria, and south central Turkey and was used by the ancient Egyptians for coffin manufacture with the oils of the cedar being used for preservation in the mummification process.
Cedrus libani is an evergreen coniferous tree growing up to 40 m (130 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) in diameter. The crown is conic when young, becoming broadly tabular with age with fairly level branches.
The shoots are dimorphic, with long shoots and short shoots. The leaves are needle-like, spaced out on the long shoots, and in clusters of 15-45 on the short shoots; they are 5–30 mm (1⁄4–1 3⁄16 in) in length, quadrangular in cross-section, and vary from green to glaucous blue-green with stomatal bands on all four sides. The seed cones are produced often every second year, and mature in 12 months from pollination; mature cones in late autumn are 8–12 cm (3–4 3⁄4 in) long and 4–6 cm (1 1⁄2–2 3⁄8 in) wide.

YOU CAN BUY THE BLANKS HERE - http://www.turningblanks.net/servlet...non/Categories It will make the curators of the museum a little less nervous if you do

Originally Posted by plantagenon

Google reveals all
Lebanon cedar or Cedar of Lebanon
YOU CAN BUY THE BLANKS HERE - Cedar of Lebanon Wood Turning Blanks It will make the curators of the museum a little less nervous if you do

Thanks for the info Greg, but, Red Cedar of any breed is totally banned from my workshop from now on, due to my severe allergic reaction to the fine dust it produces. Three weeks on and I'm still suffering !

Just turn it using a chisel and a wooden mallet.