Western red cedar for this chair ok?

[Dukester]

I have a folding chair very similar to this one:

I picked up at a yard sale several years ago. It is a homemade chair, and very well built out of red oak. Instead of the hammock "seat" shown in the linked picture above, it has a heavy duty webbing that a person sits in. As you can see there is not much to the wooden parts of the chair. They are all 3/4" pieces with most of the pieces being no wider than 1 1/2"

My question is: would western red cedar be strong enough for building a new chair to the same dimensions as the one made of oak? The oak chair sits outside, but in a covered area and does not get much weathering. The new chairs need to be able to withstand being outdoors year round, and I hate maintenance on things like this. I was going to choose cypress as I used that in some adirondack type chairs years ago, but my supply has dried up. The wrc seems very light compared to the oak and cypress and I didn't know how strong it was.

Thanks, Dukester

[Toller]

I would use white oak.

[Swingman]

I purchased about $1K worth of WRC last week to make the porch column's on a Craftsman style house. Based on the milling I did on that batch, I want to say that you might find it a bit on the light side for a chair of that type ... IOW, lots of apparently thin parts.

Forget cypress ... with the stuff on the market these days you might as well use fir, IMO, unless you can find some recycled/old growth stuff.

Like Toller, my preference would white oak ... it should do well outside with the proper finish.

Just my .02 ...

[Locutus]

What about teak?

[Swingman]

Would be an excellent choice if your pocketbook can $tand it.

My experience with teak lately is a befuddled expression brought about by how-in-hell Sam's/Wal-Mart can import teak outdoor furniture, and apparently sell it at a profit, cheaper than I can buy the rough stock.

I know, I know ... it's all about cheap labor ... but it still offends sense and sensibility.

[Andy Dingley]

For this one? Not a hope. I just don't think you can make a chair from WRC and use "rectangular spindles" like that without it being either fragile or looking clumsy. If you use a design based on wide slats then you could do it in ERC, but even then it's marginal and WRC wouldn't be up to it. There are similar resinous "outdoor" timbers that are strong enough and still cheap, but not WRC.

[J T]

Tue, Dec 19, 2006, 2:51pm (EST-1) [e-mail] (Swingman) doth sayeth: Would be an excellent choice if your pocketbook can $tand it.

Nah, teak is cheap. My ex-SIL and her husband own(owned) a two-story house, made entirely of teak. Hmmm, of course they do live in Thailand. LMAO Teak over there was probably the cheapest wood you could buy. I bought almost an entire house of teak furniture for about $300 total - still got a few pieces, sold the rest. Still have a custom teak drop front desk, cost me $35 as I recall. Actually had two, but sold the other after it got broken up some in moving. Teak was used for about everything, furniture, houses, caskets, carvings, the list goes on.

JOAT Where does Batman buy gas for the Batmobile?

[Toller]

Because its not teak. There are hundreds of tropical hardwoods that have no market because no one has heard of them; yet are great woods. They use them for skids and firewood. An example is viraro I bought for $3.50/bf. It is dirt cheap because there is no market for it, but it is beautiful wood comparable to mahogany. Same with whatever they make those imported chairs out of; its not teak, but is pretty good.

[Swingman]

Ahh, but the ones of which I speak are indeed TEAK ... not the no name, pacific rim, mystery wood of which you speak.

I bought two teak porch rockers from Sam's about five years ago that are indeed "teak". IIRC, They were around $200 each at the time, which at the teak prices of that day was roughly the cost to buy the wood ... AAMOF, having had just bought, milled and built a set of teak patio furniture, it was the very reason I bought them at the time.

That purchase, and knowing what I bought, is also the raison d'être of my ocassional remarks on the issue.

That said, we (actually SWMBO) purchased a porch rocker more recently from Sam's, a damn sight cheaper, that looks like it might be teak, if you don't know the difference ... I do, and it's not ... but neither was it represented/sold as "teak".

Now, I leave you to go sit in my genuine teak porch rocker with a glass of wine, because the sun has set on the British Empire somewhere where teak used to be cheap, and it has been a long day with cherry and walnut, and I need a change of wood ... hope you enjoy the evening as much as I am going to. ;)

[Lew Hodgett]

These days, teak is supposed to come from plantations that exist specifically to insure a supply of honest teak.

Having said that, comparing plantation teak to virgin Thai teak is about the same as with any other wood.

The virgin timber is head and shoulders above the 2nd, 3rd, etc, growth timbers.

Harvesting Thai teak using the elephant has been outlawed on a world wide basis; however, that and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at a cheap restaurant.

Not sure if China abides by the ban or not.

Lew

[Dukester]

Assuming I use white oak, what would be an appropriate outdoor finish?

Cheers! Dukester

[Lew Hodgett]

Personally, I like the color of white oak rubbed with 3-4 coats of BLO.

After that, 3-4 coats of a high quality marine varnish such as Epifanes.

Lightly sand between coats.

Lew

[B A R R Y]

Some Burmese teak is harvested by genuine slaves.