Cedar Gallery

In this space, the cedar gets the spotlight — often overshadowed by the hardwoods we fuss over during a hard week’s work. Here, the cedar breathes. It rests. It leans into long weekends and summer campfires: a cedar chair on the dock, a cedar table on the back deck. This is the room for the easygoing nature cedar is famous for. Even the smell of a cedar yoga block in hot yoga carries that relaxed, in‑the‑moment calm. Get your cedar on and settle in. The weekend is here.

Cedar work, fresh off the bench

About Cedar

Cedar has a way of carrying its seasons with it.

Even fresh off the planer, it brings the warmth of summer into a cold shop. It’s light in the hand, steady under the plane, and honest about where it’s been — knots, streaks, scars, and all.

There’s often tight grain and deep colour waiting to breathe. It’s a material that rewards patience, and it never minds being worked hard.

Raw Cedar

How Cedar Takes a Finish

Cedar takes a finish beautifully because of its light, airy nature. Long‑oil varnish settles into it without a fight, warming the colour and giving outdoor pieces that easy, weather‑ready glow cedar is known for. Indoors, custom finishes land just as clean — stains, glazes, and clear coats all deepen the tone without stealing the softness. Cedar doesn’t resist finish; it welcomes it. Give it patience and a steady hand, and it shows every step of the work.

Finished Cedar

Cedar builds aren’t fussy

They’re meant for weather, for use, for years of sun and snow. Chairs, benches, siding, planters — pieces that live outside, gather stories, and keep going. This gallery is a simple walk through cedar as it shows up in the shop and around the yard: raw boards, work in progress, and finished pieces doing their job.

Cedar builds

Featured Cedar Stories

Cedar carries memory. It holds colour, weather, scars, and the quiet history of every place it’s lived. These featured stories go deeper into that lineage — from reclaimed boards with decades of service to the species‑level behaviour that shapes every build in the shop.

Shop Rambles

Cedar

If you’ve ever wondered why cedar is so light, so aromatic, and so naturally rot‑resistant, the answer goes back 70 million years. This story explores the science behind cedar’s behaviour, its deep‑time evolution, and why it remains one of the most forgiving woods in the shop.

Old Cedar

The cedar we tore off the old decks looked finished — soft, rotten, and ready for the dump. But once the boards dried and the first passes through the planer cut through the weathered surface, the wood showed tight grain, rich colour, and old‑growth strength. This Ramble follows the reclaimed cedar from demolition pile to Muskoka chairs, tracing the milling, the grain, the lessons with Leo, and how fifty‑year‑old lumber found a second life.

Cedar Block Therapy

Cedar blocks are the simplest form of the material — small, warm, and honest. No joinery, no fuss, no finish to chase. Just cedar doing what cedar does best: offering a bit of calm.

Cedar Blocks

Cedar in Restorative Work

Cedar blocks are also used in therapeutic movement work, where their natural warmth and gentle weight help support the body in slow, restorative positions. The material has a steadiness to it that people appreciate — something real to lean into, breathe against, or rest on.

Simple tools. Natural material. A quiet way to reset.

Sap‑Rich and Fresh From the Planer

Fresh off the planer, the blocks carry that same sap‑rich scent that fills the shop during a milling day. They’re smooth, light, and warm to the touch, almost like holding a piece of summer in your hand. Some come from clean boards, others from weathered stock with fifty years of grain and story in them — either way, they feel grounded.