Spanish Cedar

[shellback]

I am familiar with Spanish Cedar as I've used it building furniture. While the color and workability mimick mahogany, I wonder about the suiltability for use in boatbuilding. Is the specific gravity similar to mahogany? Is it a decay resistant as some say? How about holding fastenings and glue? Anyone have experience in using it?

[warthog5]

Glad to see this thread. I too am reserching it.

I have made a few flag poles that needed to be a custom size to fit in rodholder's that are 1 3/4in ID,

There are no flag pole's made that are that large that you can just buy.

I found the stuff nice to work with.
they will get 1 coat of epoxy and then sanded. Then a secound coat of epoxy and sanded again.
I will then spray them with clear Awlgrip.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Warthog5/FlagPole008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Warthog5/FlagPole009.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Warthog5/FlagPole010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Warthog5/FlagPole012.jpg

[Bayboat]

Spanish cedar (Cedrela mexicana), also called cigar-box cedar, is fine for boat building. It's a bit lighter than Honduras mahogany and classifiede as durable. Dick Shew and Cecil Burnhan, of Maine, have been building fine Whithall skiffs for many years, planked with Spanish cedar. It glues well and holds fastenings.

[Dan Miller]

I have a canvas canoe built by B.N. Morris before 1920. It is entirely planked with Spanish cedar. Never seen anything else like it, usually these are planked with western red cedar or northern white cedar. It has held up fine and is in the queu for restoration.

In addition, many traditional lapstrake canoes and small boats had Spanish cedar sheer strakes and decking - J.H. Rushton is noted for this practice.

Cheers,
Dan Miller
Dragonfly Canoe Works

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Here is a 36 foot S&S sloop named Inward Bound, built in Argentina in 1965. She is ex 'Barracuda' and has raced extensively on the ocean, including getting knocked down hard a couple of times in bad weather. She's pretty, but make no mistake, one tough boat. Gary Magwood, her owner is an ex formula one driver that loves her to death. The cedar in her is everything positive that has been commented on.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid89/p5e40803cdd111446b327523d29227e66/fa8ab07d.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid205/pa7fe7e6e35241619c6afe11dc9a52b56/ef0807de.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid205/pd0a6eb9e0eca2be881e8786785bfb8c9/ef0808ff.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid205/p6077656b05580cec520bb08091758be1/ef080a95.jpg

[katiedobe]

Glad to know that. I was told by a local woodworker here that I should build all my doors for my customers out of Spanish Cedar. She says it holds up better in the humidity than the Honduran Mahogany does. That is if I can find the Honduran Mahogany. Most of what is available to me down here in Southern Mexico called "Caoba" looks, smells and works like what I think of as "Luan".
I wonder if I could make spars out of the spanish Cedar? What do you guys think. Short spars like for the Penobscot 14 and 17 and so forth.

[Bayboat]

Jimmy: As far as I know, "caoba" has always meant Honduras mahogany. Luan or Lauan is one of the many "Philippine mahoganies" from southeast Asia. I would be surprised if it is sold in QRoo. It has a superficial resemblance to caoba, but it's definitely not the same. It's lighter and not as durable (rot resistant). QRoo has for years been a major source of caoba, although it has been successively worked out on some concessions. For a long time caoba logs were acquired from Belize and processed at a large mill west of Chetumal. Is that mill still operating? It produced lumber and plywood. There was also a big mill and plywood plant at Nohbec, and smaller mills scattered around. Also there was a big operation, defunct for years, in northeastern Yucatan state. By 1990 many of the mills were processing other hardwoods. Honduras mahogany used to be very plentiful and cheap in QRoo. I remember that when new "colonias" were being built along the new road from Chetumal to Escarcega, many houses were planked with mahogany mill rejects. Have you heard of any successes at plantation-grown caoba in QRoo? Several decades ago there was a large nursery operation at Laguna San Felipe, planting caoba saplings in brechas. I don't know what success they had.