Friend of mine had a big eastern Red cedar come down by her house lane. Since it was easy access and her teenage son carried and loaded my truck, could not pass it up. Got it with outside campfire wood in mind instead of wood stove heating. It split nice, and made the most colorful, aromatic pile I ever split! My references say it is along the lines of white pine, good smoke aroma, but sparky. Was wondering if anyone has had experience burning it, either heating or camp fire?
It looks too pretty to burn. I've never seen splits with that kind if color. Always cool to see some types of wood that you have never seen before.
I've burned eastern red cedar (juniper) and Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides/cypress, a protected species now in some places) in a wood stove. Same as eastern white pine: burns hot and fast, maybe even faster than the pine. I find that "sparky" wood isn't very when you control available air such as you do in a EPA stove. In a fireplace both will "pop and spark" and toss embers necessitating a screen to contain them. It's all firewood and makes flames and heat. I like softwoods for a backyard firepit because they burn up faster than hardwoods and you're less likely to have a fire still smoldering in the morning. Plus you get to keep tossing another one on the fire which can be part of the pyro fun.
Real nice looking pile of wood there. People pay $$'s for cedar closets. Toss a few pieces in your closet. Once the scent has diminished, just give it a quick light sanding, and it'll come right back.
Had a medium size Red Cedar go through our stove this winter. I will echo that it burns hot and fast, but sometimes that is what you are looking for. Gets the Locust splits going nicely. Kept the limb wood for use in the patio burner this summer. Will monitor its burn over a few Barley Pops. Gotta love that smell.
The red and white grow around here pretty abundantly. I think its the best wood for kindling. You can get it dry very quickly, by summer's end being quite dry, you're golden. Does look pretty too but burns very fast so optimal in getting that fire started. Its going to split very easily too as it dries so as your summer goes on, split the splits more until you have french fry thick sticks. I just use a hand hatchet its just so easy to pop those apart. its fun when you get to see your pile at the bottom of the chop block and just put it in a box specifically for kindling. Plus who can forget the smell of cedar? Its amazing how aromatic it is.
That is some beautiful wood! Will make great kindling too. I've tried to talk a neighbor into putting cedar in his kennel because of the sand fleas that his dog gets. Cedar will usually take care of it but you have to put some in there but they'd rather clean the house from end to end and give doggie baths, etc. Hard to believe what they go through when the cure would be so easy.
Don't try to keep much of that stuff stacked indoors. I used some "closet liner" which is the same stuff to line a stairway as wainscotting. After a fairly short time we all agreed it was just way too aromatic so I sealed it with a heavy coat of varnish. Problem solved for the house here but you don't want to varnish your splits.
Wow. You must have used a lot of it. We too used cedar for closet liners and loved the smell. It's pretty much gone now though.
All but the bathroom linen closet here are lined with red cedar . The aromatics dissipated in about a year and you really only noticed it when you opened a closet door. "Smell" was gone long ago. Cut some blocks out of the heartwood to put in bureau drawers and hope chests. Put the FHC logo on them.
It was not in a closet but I used about enough to fully line a couple of closets. Being exposed to the room by being in an open stairway the odor became overpowering in a closed up house in winter.
I did split out and save the straight grain heartwood for just what you said, closets and drawers. Also split out a bunch for kindling.
I love Red Cedar. It burns fast and hot like other softwoods, and I like to have some fast and hot burning wood for spring and fall, and to restart a bed of coals. I'd burn that stuff indoors, but I'll admit to having too few campfires in my backyard.
