Alaska yellow cedar for linings

Over the years I have used a lot of different woods for linings, both solid and kerfed. Over the last couple of months, in a sprint to crank out a lot of instruments for festivals and customers, I have gone to using Alaska yellow cedar to make solid linings. It is a marvelous wood for this. I've been bending them by hand up to 3/16" thick for both bound and unbound instruments, and I have not broken one yet. It bends like butter and yet is light and stiff. If you have not worked with it, give it a try, it smells great and is overall a fun wood to work with.

Brad

Brad, when you say 'bending by hand' does that mean a bending iron?
Are you soaking or spritzing with water?
How similar in characteristic do you think Western Red Cedar would be?
Fred

Port Orford Cedar is pretty nice too.....

Yes Fred, I used a Stew-Mac bending iron, sprayed the wood lightly with water right before bending. I did not think that red cedar would be as forgiving, went down to the shop and tried a couplke of pieces to see. I was right, you can bend red cedar, but it is tricky and fails without much warning. Here are a couple of pics that show a piece of yellow cedar that I wrapped around the bending iron in about 45 seconds. It is 3/16" thick.

Bruce you are right, Port Orford cedar is nice, but a little hard to get. As I recall, they are both members of the cypress family and are some the most stable woods there are when dealing with humidity changes. Maybe that is why it is so easy to bend.

Bradford said:

.....Bruce you are right, Port Orford cedar is nice, but a little hard to get. As I recall, they are both members of the cypress family and are some the most stable woods there are when dealing with humidity changes. Maybe that is why it is so easy to bend.

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Brad, we have some Spanish cypress, do you think that would work too? We've used pieces of it for braces occasionally, but I never thought of making linings out of it.

Hi Erich, I couldn't tell you. I have never used Spanish cypress. Give it a try and let us know.

Brad

Thanks Brad, we'll let you know.

Has anyone else had problems with basswood tearing when you bend it? We have some nice, smooth strips of basswood that bend like butter and, on the other hand, some kerfed basswood linings that tear out at even the slightest attempt.... I dunno, maybe it's just a bad batch.