Cedar?

[Doug T]

I scored from really nice lumber, cutoffs from a custom cabinet shop.  I looks like a cross between WR Cedar and Sitka spruce.  Some of the growth lines are closer than 1mm, it is quartersawn, and has almost no smell, more pitchy than cedary.  What it really looks like to me is the pinkish color you sometimes get with Sitka.  The cabinet guy said it was client supplied, and he called it Alaskan Cedar.  It does not look like Yellow cedar.  Ideas?  I'll try to post a pic or two later on.  I hope it is something appropriate for bracing because this is awesome.

Doug

Flat Cat Instruments

[charley erck]

The name Alaska cedar is commonly used for Yellow Cedar, Alaska Yellow cedar. The smell is normally very strong, but different from Western Red Cedar, or Tennessee Red Cedar. " Pitchy" might describe it for some people. Smell is a subjective thing, some people don't perceive something as strong smelling that others find very powerful! Try cutting into it,as sometimes with age the smell gets sublimated off the surface.
Alaska, Yellow Cedar, does have a spruce-like grain appearance. You'd think that the cabinet guy would know the correct specie. Not sure if it is used for bracing ever. Does anyone out there have experience with this wood for bracing
I have been trying some old spruce from a hundred year old piano sound board and it's braces, which I dismantled, for repairs of braces etc.

[Doug T]

Ok, got some pictures shot.  I'm not anything, all free, so whether I can use it or not won't put me out money.  It rings like a bell, and I'll have to size it to see if it is stiff enough, but thought if the species could be identified, it'd make the decision making process easier.  There are 8 pieces all roughly 2"x4"x18".   Did a little cut, definitely pitchy, not cedary.  Really nice stuff.  Probably 8 or 10 guitar's worth of stuff minimum.

[William F.Eden]

I would go a head and use some you never know what it may sound like. But I would not scalp it to much.Good luck Bill.'''''''''''''''''

[Rob Mercure]

It's easier to compare pics of unknown woods when there's a piece of known wood, or two, adjacent.  Lighting, the camera itself. etc. make a lot of difference and simply laying the sample on a guitar top or other wood of known, or suspected. variety can really help.  Definitely not Virginia Juniper (eastern red cedar) and really donesn't look like western red cedar (oh an end shot partially moistoned is helpful) - sometimes a definitive bit of destructive testing is to shave a very thin curl from a corner with a pocket knife, light it and blow it out, and smell the smoke.  Spruces will almost always show themselves this way.

Lastely little digital, "balances" are widely available - I bought one for $8 USA from a Habor Freight a few months ago that calibrates well with my mass set.  You can dry the wood, shape a cubic inch or CC, and then weight it.  Without a humidity meter you can't compart within a species that easier (without a sample set) but you could get it to the species and then something like "like specimen within Abies genus, or moderate specimen"  (density varies from tree to tree and part of the same tree but I bet you can get down to the genus.).

 

Rob