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PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 7:01 pm 
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Location: Aurora CO
A few years ago, I built a shadow box in memory of my MIL who'd pasted away. I used lignum vitae and Jo really liked the smell of the wood. So, instead of applying an oil finish and varnish or poly like I usually do, I used micro mesh sanding pads to about 15000 grit, and got a finish that wasn't really a finish. Just polished wood, and now about 5 years later, you can still smell the wood.

Now I'm building a 2 step stepstool from aromatic cedar, and Jo asked if we would still be able to smell it after finishing. So, I was just wondering, if I try the same thing, do you think that it will polish to the point of looking like a finish when it's not finished?

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 7:22 pm 
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Hey Frank,

I doubt it. LV is a naturally waxy wood, that's why it was used for bearings and fairleads. Cocobolo is another wood with similar qualities, which I've used the same way you did. Aromatic cedar is an oily softwood, so I wouldn't expect the same results.

Cheers,
Tom

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 8:22 am 
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Tom's right. Built a lot of stuff out of Eastern Red (aromatic) Cedar and it will lose it's smell pretty quickly - within a few weeks. It can be refreshed with light sanding, buy you likely don't want to have to do that.

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 2:48 pm 
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Kind of what I was thinking, but just wanted some confirmation. I'll go ahead and finish as I'd originally planned. Thanks guys.

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