Northern White Cedar vs. Port Oxford

[timberbeast]

Does anyone know the difference between Port Oxford and Northern White Cedar?  I have heard of Port Oxford Cedar,  and have had inquiries about it.  Thanks in advance!

[Ron Scott]

Port-Orford-cedar is also known as Oregon white-cedar due to its range in northern California and southwestern Oregon. It is restricted to the coastal forests of southwestern Oregon and northern California. It is a larger tree than northern white cedar, 140-180 feet in height and 4-6 feet in diameter.

Port-Orford-cedar seldom grows in pure stands of any extent except in the Coos Bay, Oregon region. It is a commonly used tree for ornamental planting, and about 70 horticultural varieties are now known.

[timberbeast]

Thanks,  Ron!!!  Is the lumber similar?  Sorry! :D

[Ron Scott]

As far as I know the lumber is similar, but a western species.

[swampwhiteoak]

Tech sheets for:

http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/htmlDocs/chamaelawson.html   Port Oxford Cedar
and
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/htmlDocs/thujaoccidentalis.html" Northern White Cedar

[timberbeast]

Thanks,  guys!!!  Great link,  Swampy!!!

[Don P]

Not that this has anything to do with the present thread :D
This is some northern white. It has the gray (not bluestain) zone between the normal colored heartwood and the sapwood. Is it just mineral or something else stressing the tree?





I think I remember Port Orford is pencils and arrow shafts, small stable woodenware?

[L. Wakefield]

   Beautiful wood! Agreat reminder that anything made from wood is not only useful, but has the potemtial for being an art form. I think that's true even of a campfire.  lw

[Ron Wenrich]

I thought incense cedar was the pencil wood.   :-/   My kid brought home pencils that were made out of plastic.  

[Tillaway]

You are right Ron, Incense Cedar is pencil cedar.  Port Orford is realtively rare and if it is harvested it seems like all the logs go to a couple of brokers  that export them to Japan.  Last I heard it was sell for several thousand $ per MBF as a raw log. 8)

[Jeff]

Your right L.W. any wood can be art. Here is the first slab off  an eastern red cedar that we sawed on Tom's mill while I was in Florida. I thought is would be worthless but with a stern talking to by Mr. Tom I have the makins for many many art projects from that ole log.  

It now hangs next to our front door and is home for one of Stacy's stuffed animals.

[L. Wakefield]

   Hey, he's making out way better than that squirrel pancake I saw in one of the other threads :D  lw

[Jeff]

The pictures kinda suck. Its really pretty striking in person and the coon looks a little more realistic.  We're goona put a recordable squeeze doll voicebox in his head. When you squeeze his head you get my best raccoon voice saying "Don't squeeze my freaking head"

[Tom]

Wow, Jeff.  That's great.  That coon really makes it a choice wall hanging.  You did good !   ;D

[CHARLIE]

Following is an article that appeared on the Wood Magazine website which I thought would fit in this thread quite well.  :P


                      Port Orford Cedar  
  The ship-shape wood that went underground Sir Thomas Lipton, a wealthy British tea merchant turned yachtsman, had a fondness for Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsonia). For the 30 years following the turn of the century, his racing sailboats, which challenged five times for the America's Cup,  were built from it. Although Sir Thomas never captured the cup, he made Port Orford cedar
a mainstay among boatbuilders (and his tea a household word).

Known also as Lawson's cypress, Port Orford cedar grows only in a 30-mile wide band from Coos Bay, Oregon, to Eureka, California. From pioneer times, the tree was harvested for its durable wood.

Uses for the stock ranged from venetian-blind slats to mine timbers and railroad ties. It also saw limited application as plywood in the construction of light aircraft.

Because Port Orford cedar resists acid, it became prime stock for storage-battery separators.

In addition to supplying all of the above needs, Port Orford cedar has long been the favorite wood of archers. Not for their bows, though, but for arrows. Besides straight grain, the wood has strength combined with lightness.

Perhaps Port Orford cedar's strangest destiny was the graveyard. Donald Culross Peattie, in his A Natural History of Western Trees, cites a great demand for the wood as caskets in China and Japan. Its lightness, durability, and satiny, finished texture, plus gingerlike odor, made it perfect. So much was used that Peattie writes: "Sometimes one wonders if there is not almost as much of it [Port Orford cedar] underground in Asia as there is above ground here.