# Finish for a cedar kitchen table



## aciresi (Feb 11, 2019)

Hello,

I am trying to find what to use that will bring out the best look but also be very durable for daily use. I also am curious if anyone knows how I should properly seal/fill knots?

Thanks!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

aciresi said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am trying to find what to use that will bring out the best look but also be very durable for daily use. I also am curious if anyone knows how I should properly seal/fill knots?
> 
> Thanks!


If you mean eastern red cedar like cedar chests are made of polyurethane would make a good finish. It's hard and very water resistant. Inside the knot holes I normally drill small holes to give a filler something to bond to. What I use for filler is a fiberglass filler otherwise known as bondo. You can color the bondo with a universal tinting color prior to adding hardener and it works well. If the cedar you are referring to is western red cedar that isn't a very good wood for a table. It's so soft it would mar very easy. To finish it you might consider a pour on epoxy. It would add some hardness that the wood lacks. It wouldn't necessarily have to be the thickness normally associated with pour on epoxy.


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## WeebyWoodWorker (Jun 11, 2017)

despite being pretty Ceder isn't exactly very durable, especially not for a table. Personally I'd suggest a glass top, for filling knots I use epoxy of sorts normally. If I'm in a rush bondo will do the job just fine as long as you're dying it with something. I just prefer epoxy as you can pour it into cracks an knots rather than having to use a putty knife. 



-T


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

aciresi said:


> ...I am trying to find what to use that will bring out the best look but also be very durable for daily use. I also am curious if anyone knows how I should properly seal/fill knots? Thanks!


Hi Aciresi,

I would really need to see pictures of the wood in question to give my best advise for some of your question.

For one, we don't have any "actual" cedars here in North America...We do have Cypress, Juniper, and Larchs but no Cedars, and each one of those three are different...

I would also have to ask what your long term goal is for the table? Is it a "one and done" that you just want to use well and don't care to hand it down within the family...or...is it something that means a lot to you that you wish to have age gracefully over time?

The "generic" cedars we build with here are related to many that you would find in China, Korea and Japan...

These are incredibly durable and well used woods for everything from timber frames (the oldest in the world at 2000 years) to floors, and furniture as well...So I like the choice you made for sure...:grin:

If this is a "let's just use it!!" and don't care about much more...then a hard epoxy or urethane will do the job of that. However, this is outside my scope because I don't put "plastic" on 99.9% of my work...It has to be stripped off...WHEN...(not if)...it starts to wear out and this is some serious work!!! Nevertheless, it will give you probably (???) the most durable and abusive resistant finish...in general...I can recommend a great company that makes a very durable form I use in my work with vivarium/aquarium...and artificial rock and wood...

If you want to explore traditional and/or natural finishes and the means of maintaining them and such things, I can expand on that if interested?



WeebyWoodWorker said:


> ...despite being pretty Ceder isn't exactly very durable, especially not for a table...


Weeby...forgive me if I challenged that perspective just a bit above in my post...Sincerely..:smile2:


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## aciresi (Feb 11, 2019)

Thank you for the replys. I am not sure what type of cedar it is. Its been 5 months since I bought the wood from my local lumber yard.

I am trying to figure out how to post a picture and will when I get that figured out. Any ideas how to? I am new here.


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## aciresi (Feb 11, 2019)

I figured out how to add a picture.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

aciresi said:


> I figured out how to add a picture.


The wood is western cedar. 

The top you might have problems with. When you build out of wood you have to allow for the wood to shrink. Having the boards on the ends with the grain running perpendicular to the top will prevent the top from shrinking. Western cedar is really stable but should the wood in the center of the top shrink it will split to re-leave the pressure. From where you are I wouldn't replace the top until it did split. You might get lucky and not have a problem with it. If it does happen you will know why and when you replace the top research the method of putting a breadboard end on the table.


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## Brian T (Nov 3, 2018)

I used to have western red cedar dining room furniture. 

The table was 2" thick and 68" in diameter. Yes, 5' 8" in diameter.
The 6 chairs were 60" tall and 2" thick glue-ups, like the table. 

Post and peg table frame. Not hard to seat 10 people for dinner.

Dark walnut stain and X coats of polyurethane finish.


I had to take the table apart to get it into the house. First meal was weiners & beans.


1. In 15+ years of Canadian dry winters, never any such thing as splitting or cracking.
2. The table was soft. It did get marked with the ghosts of children's homework.
I did not care at all. Do you care? Less noticible with the dark stain.
3. I still have the 7+-foot diameter lace tablecloth that my Mother made for it.
That's irrelevant and I can't remember where I put it.


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

aciresi said:


> ...Thank you for the replys. I am not sure what type of cedar it is. Its been 5 months since I bought the wood from my local lumber yard.


Hi Aciresi,

I agree with Steve...this looks like a Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata.) 

It is a very stable wood by comparison, to other species...

I am not as concerned with the "Framing Apron" modality you selected to build the table with, as it looks many of the field planks are rift of quarter sawn (or very near it!) As such, these will have less tendency (most likely?) to try to withdraw from each other if shrinking does occur. 

There are some plain sawn planks too within the field near the edge (from what I can see?) but it being a Thuja (and I assume dried wood?) these should not give you any great issue...*and if they do*...It should be minimal for this species and rather easy to repair/augment...assuming it is even large enough to bother you?

Now you have a choice to make about which path to go down for your finish...traditional or modern plastic...?


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

I have a cedar hope chest that I built in 1979. I have no idea what kind of "cedar" wood was used. I finished the outside with Deft. The Deft came in a paint can and was brushed on. The inside was never finished, to allow the cedar aromatics to discourage moths.

The hope chest has been moved from Southern California to Canada and back. It is still in excellent condition, even though it currently lives in the garage, sitting on the concrete floor. We store sleeping bags in it. The Deft has held up well.


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## VirginiaHart (Dec 25, 2020)

Can you send pics please? I am thinking of making one like that myself and I would love some real life reference. We have recently moved to my dad's old house and there is a lot of furniture that needs restoring or replacing altogether. As you can guess I am more into the idea of restoring it and I have ad serious fights with my partner about it but we managed to achieve a compromise. I get to restore all the furniture I want in the house but the outside is his domain. I agreed and then a new battle began. He decided that he needed patio furniture and we started picking out different sets. I wanted something bright he wanted something neutral. In the end we settled on a whit set that we found online over here: https://nyfurnitureoutlets.com/patio-furniture/patio-dining-sets/filter-white and surprise surprise we both liked it. It has been doing well so far and looks really cute.


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

VirginiaHart said:


> Can you send pics please? I am thinking of making one like that myself and I would love some real life reference


You asked. I went out to the garage to have another look at the cedar hope chest. Over the last two decades, it has had a lot of boxes stacked, moved, and re-stacked on it. The top was very dusty and somewhat scratched. It would take considerable work to get it out of the space where it lives to display and photograph it properly for you, so I photographed what I could in place. If you look at the sides and bottom, and you can see that the Deft finish has held up well. My spouse never liked it much as fine furniture, so it was relegated to the garage as a storage container.

The design of the hope chest is very plain. In my defense, it was one of my first woodworking projects. It was made with the knottiest (read: cheapest) cedar I could find; it was all I could afford at the time. I hope the photos help. 

Photos:

Very dusty and abused cedar hope chest from 1979, finished with Deft.
Same cedar chest, after wiping off with a damp cloth and then a dry cloth.
Bottom right corner showing a portion of the scalloped shape on the bottom.


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## VirginiaHart (Dec 25, 2020)

thanks so much


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