source for dark western red cedar

[anthony karakas]

Greetings everyone,

Does anyone know where i can obtain enough dark western red cedar to strip an entire canoe?

I was up at Langford Canoe in Dwight ON last week and was really impressed with the color of their wood canoes. The owner told me they only use dark red cedar from British Columbia.

Thanks for any and all advice,
Anthony

[sedges]

Don't get me wrong, I love the look of a dark wood boat. I selected dark "chocolate" cedar when ever I could find it. It really was brown, not red. I used it for accents until I ran into a bunch of it one wood shopping trip. I bought all I could afford. I built beautiful E.M.White guide canoe in all dark wood with a spruce accent stripe. It turn out great. The next canoe I built for a customer with the same dark wood turned out AWFUL. The resin turned milky from humidity maybe. It would have hardly showed against lighter wood, but it made a dark canoe UGLY. I painted the outside and started over with a new build.

Resins are better these days and this may no longer be an issue, but it should be considered. Make sure your glassing skills are very good and you have a warm, climate-controlled shop.

Finding the stuff is hit and miss, and gets harder as time goes on. All of the chocolate cedar I used was clear, straight and very fine grained. It definitely came from very big trees.

[Rod Tait]

Dark brown cedar is usually from the softer pith or center of an older tree. It is prized for accents even by us who live on the west coast and have many mills to choose from. I actually charge a little more for dark red cedar when sold in kits as it is harder to find and if everyone wanted a whole boat from it, they would quickly deplete my stock. And when I get a clear, dark board 18 ft. long up to 15 inches wide, I keep those strips for custom boats as they yield higher prices.

[anthony karakas]

Thanks Rod and Sedges for the interesting commentary.

Sedges, do you have any pictures you could post of that beautiful guide boat you referred to?

Rod, so even in BC chocolate cedar is scarce...sounds like i should reconsider my initial idea..

[Moonman]

Hi Anthony,

I think getting enough for the whole boat might be tough...., but I know Noahs does have some dark strips in on a regular basis, which can be used for accents. Also, you could consider staining the hull.

Martin Step has some good info on his greenval.com site and a few builders here have done it as well. If you don't mind scarfing your strips, you could also just check out home depot/Rona etc for the odd clear dark board. I always check their wood supplies no matter what I'm there for, and I sometimes find a nice piece. I've also on occasion found a completely clear piece among their cedar posts. This was mixed in with the knotty stuff - not sold as clear. Always easier to find clear boards from larger dimension lumber, as they have to be milled from a larger tree....

Moonman.

[Moonman]

Hey Anthony,

Here is a pic from Martin's site re a stained hull. Pretty good result I think.



Moonman.

[sedges]

I have not found any real good photos, but here are links to the two I located. I know I have a better one somewhere, but haven't come across the slide in my effort to sort and scan decades of slides. I didn't have good camera back then and the cheap film I used has color cast with age.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/s ... anoe_1.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/s ... anoe_2.jpg

The E.M. White Guide Canoe plans came from the Gilpatrick book and I found them a bit strange. I ended up stretching the ends to make them fair. The 18 footer turned into an 18' 10" canoe, but was very nice to paddle and a real station wagon. It was delivered to a family in WI who left a week later on a trip from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay. Seasoned travelers for sure. They ran the Bloodvein and other north Ontario/Manitoba rivers in this boat over the years. It came back once for refinish and had obvious stood up well to some really rough use.

[sedges]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/s ... anoe_8.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/s ... anoe_9.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/s ... noe_10.jpg

[Jeff in Farmington, MI]

Fingerle Lumber in Ann Arbor Michigan is a very large classic lumberyard. One of their indoor warehouses houses their high grade hard and soft woods. A year ago, I purchased two VERY dark cedar boards from Fingerle (I live 25 minutes away), and used them over some large areas of the hull, as well as some 1/4 inch pinstripes. The color is of dark chocolate with some interesting grain. These strips were also exceptionally lightweight and flexible!
Although my two dark boards were only 9 and 10 feet in length, Fingerle does carry amazingly clear cedar boards of all colors up to 20 feet long! Very nice wood, but cedar that clear is expensive!

- Jeff

[anthony karakas]

MoonMan, thanks for the idea; i will have to consider that option...

Sedges, thanks for posting those pics; nice work on that canoe...

Jeff, i will certainly look into Fingerle Lumber as well; thank you!