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Cypress question

Julio Navarro

Julio Navarro

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281
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Tampa
I have an opportunity to purchase some cypress. Not sure what price yet but is this a good wood for carpentry?

The stuff I am looking at is about 10" wide 4/4 maybe 4' long boards and it looks planed on at least one side.

I dont have anything planned for it except maybe a small simple prairie style end table nothing fancy.
 
Julio, it weathers well and is pretty well impervious to bugs so it will work well for either indoor, patio or exterior projects. It is the same wood as Marty sheathed his shop with. When I lived in Sarasota in '73/'74, an elderly lady lived next door to us and had lived in that house from her youth, and the inside walls were all "Bare, Unfinished" 1" x 12" cypress, placed vertically (what we called Box House construction back in Texas). Everything else about her house furnishings and decor was tastefully done with elegant pieces, and the walls had a very smooth look with a light patina and they were beautiful. She said she just never could accept the thought of covering the beautiful wood with paper or paint. I had to agree. Many of the picture frames were also cypress, some weathered, some natural and a few stained. The lap siding was also made from cypress, and I believe all the floor joists were cypress, but the floors were old growth SYP.
 
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Julio, I've used cypress because it's very easy to come by (there's a mill in Gainesville that cuts only cypress) and was relatively inexpensive. I was paying about a $1 a BF, but that was 10+ years ago. I used it for outdoor craft projects, plant holders, bird houses and misc. stuff.

It works well, finishes very nicely, and in my opinion is a very beautiful wood when simply clear coated with polyurethane. It's light and soft (kinda like pine). For some reason though, it is not widely used as 'furniture quality' lumber. But for a small simple prairie style end table if the price was right, I'd use it.

Only 15 days till the Tampa show :thumb: looking forward to meeting you there.
 
Julio,

As Norman correctly pointed out, I very recently used over 3500' board feet of Cypress to wrap my shop.

I found the wood to be very soft, almost akin to working with Pine. Because it's soft, it mills really easily, makes very soft fluffy dust, and has a tendancy to gum up blades and cutters.

What I worked with was #2 common, and was riddled with knots...some loose to the point of falling out. And in spite of it being kiln dried, it sure 'did a dance'. I had boards that were so twisted, cupped, warped, and bowed, that I had problems even trying to lay them across two saw horses. But again, this was #2 common, and was heavily exposed to the weather.

Would I use it for furniture...? Outside furniture, probably. Inside (fine) furniture....probably not.

Hope this helps...
- Marty -
 
I made some garage doors from it. Have a outside gates and side panel built and sitting in my shop waiting on warm weather to install. I built a swim platform for my boat. The tapered column on my house. As Marty said it's rather soft. I wouldn't think of it as a furniture wood but I am sure it could be used for that.

But I found some boards, but only a few, that were noticeably harder. But only a few and I had a lot of it.

BTW I would like to have some more for outside projects.

Jeff
 
I wanted to build an old time pirogue (cajun canoe) but it's hard to get clear enough pieces, long enough. And the shipping is $$$.
 
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