Uses
The soft red-brown timber has a tight, straight grain and few knots. It is valued for its distinct appearance, aroma, and its high natural resistance to decay, being extensively used for outdoor construction in the form of posts, decking, shingles and siding. It is also widely used throughout Europe and America for making beehives. It is cultivated as an ornamental tree, to a limited extent in forestry plantations and for screens and hedges. It is commonly used for the framing and longwood in lightweight sail boats and kayaks. In larger boats it is often used in sandwich construction between two layers of epoxy resin and/or fibreglass or similar products. Due to its light weight (390–400 kg per m3 dried)it is about 30% lighter than common boat building woods, such as mahogony. For its weight it is quite strong but can be brittle. It glues well with epoxy resin or resorcinol adhesive. It is also used to line closets and chests, for its pungent aromatic oils are believed to discourage moth and carpet beetle larvae, which can damage cloth by eating wool and similar fibres. This is more effective in a properly constructed redcedar chest (sometimes made entirely of redcedar), since the oils are confined by shellac and leather seals. A well-sealed redcedar chest will retain its pungent odour for many decades, sometimes for over a century. Its light weight, strength and dark warm sound make it a popular choice for guitar soundboards.
Thujaplicin, a chemical substance, is found in mature trees and serves as a natural fungicide, thereby preventing the wood from rotting. This effect lasts around a century even after the tree is felled. However, thujaplicin is only found in older trees, and saplings that do not produce the chemical often rot at an early stage, causing some trees to grow with a somewhat hollow, rotten trunk.
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