Conifer with Red Wood?

A friend cut this conifer down and was very surprised to see the colour of the wood. As you can see from the pictures it is indeed a striking red colour with prominent growth rings. In the area that had been originally cut (about 2 weeks ago) it had started to fade to a mid tan.

Attachment 381099Attachment 381098

The leaves were similar to a pencil pine and there were a number of lateral branches from the higher part of the trunk.

There were 3 main trunks with the largest about 300mm diameter. The tree was planted as a seedling about 30 or 40 years ago.

I looked on the wood database at red pine but the timber was quite blonde and even allowing for some fading did not look like this wood.

I could not resist having some fun with a slab so green turned a piece that had a few cracks in it.

Attachment 381100

The colour has started to fade a bit even after a couple of days. On the first evening it almost looked like I had cut an oversized Beetroot in half and scooped out the centre. Very spectacular.

Any ideas on what this might be?

Thanks,

Steve

ERC- Eastern Red Cedar (USA)

Well thanks for that. I have never heard of that timber before but the wood database indicates easy to work and resistant to pests and rot.

Here is the link; the notes say that the tree is mostly referred to Eastern Redcedar but the wood is called aromatic red cedar (for good reason).

Aromatic Red Cedar | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Softwoods)

Thanks again,

Steve