aromatic eastern red cedar

[woodman]

A guy I know has some 8 or 10 foot 3/4'' lumber does any one know if it would be structural enough for stringers....I tend to think not?

For a stone fly I think I could use it on the inside gunwale, and the rub rail, end decks, and seat.

Will be doing a Stone Fly built with some club members...it will be raffled off starting at our winter powwow in Feb. clear through to, and ending with our summer powwow in Aug.

[Hirilonde]

Aromatic Eastern Red Cedar is brittle and has the craziest grain. I would think it would break with even the slightest bend, and if it didn't it would like break later if you banged into something, or something banged into you.

[Lombard]

I use Eastern Red Cedar, (which incidentally isn't a cedar but a juniper. Cedar produces cones, junipers produce berries), to make hunting weight traditional bows. As you can see in my avitar photo it will bend a good bit. Grain selection is critical for making primitive hunting bows, as is moisture content. You would no doubt have to do a bunch of scarfing to eliminate knots. I built a 12' ERC canoe back in the early eighties, that was nothing short of breathtaking, despite all my amateur mistakes. That canoe was encapsulated in polyester resin, with 6oz cloth inside and out. That is right polyester resin, and it is still in service with no de-lamination to this day. I used the polyester resin as it was given to me, and I was in college just this side of flat broke.