Rustic Style Red Cedar Small Dining Table/Desk/Side Board?

Looks Great good work

-- https://www.artisticwoodstudio.com/videos

Very nice. Love that rustic cedar.

-- Mike, Somewhere in Indiana with a splinter or two!

Beautiful Frank, too bad this georgous wood usually gets hidden inside something!

-- Dean, Kinderhook, New York

Glad to see a 2 in. glue up cedar top. I have a stack of 2 in. cedar slabs all live edge and am thinking of building a coffee table with a glass insert. My question is, do you have your cedar kiln dried or just air dried? The logs i had have been on the ground for a year and slabbed out 2weeks ago. I have them stickered in the garage with a fan blowing on them to assist drying. I am concerned about shrinkage at the joints. I see you us poly as a finish, do you have any finish issues with the knots? I have thought about waterborn poly any thoughts?

Thanks for any info
Lance in Southwest missouri

-- Lance, southwest Missouri, [email protected]

Thanx for all the kind comments.

Lance, I have found that in Texas, Aromatic Red Cedar and Mesquite are fairly stable enough to work with after a little air-drying, Red cedar loses it’s moisture fairly quickly and I have been able to work with it after just a few weeks. I primarily use air-dried cedar. You have to use a good sealer, I used several coats of a shellac based sanding sealer, sanding between coats, let the knots soak up alot of that sealer, if you don’t seal the cedar it will soak up the poly like a sponge. It is a soft wood so I chose oil based poly also for durability, have not tried water based yet. Also on the knots and any checks I used a little black tinted epoxy and grind it flush. In the past I have put turquoise chips, arrowheads, etc in any big holes around knots.
Thanx

-- Frank, Dallas,TX , http://www.allthingsrustix.com , “I have a REALLY BIG chainsaw”

Once again Frank….. you have crafted a beautiful piece. I love the style of your work and your choice of woods.