Originally Posted by
Wayne Cannon
We made frame and panel entry and garden gates plus a wide sliding gate in western red cedar left to weather gray. The lower panel was a cedar raised-panel; the upper panel was a metal grid. The entry gates were of clear WRC, while the others were #2 common. The latter are actually more attractive than the clear, in my opinion, but I was unable to avoid some broken knots along edges and panel trim. Received lots of compliments on them all.
There were two problems related to cedar, however.
(1) Cedar is soft and very easily dinged/scraped by mowers, wheelbarrows, and carried loads -- though I have to say that the weathered patina wears the dings surprisingly well.
(2) The tanins (?) in cedar react with iron to create black streaks. I thought I was being careful to use stainless bolts, stainless finish nails for the trim, and galvanized hinges and cane bolts. Wear points around the hinge and cane-bolt hardware's galvanizing results in ugly black streaks. Same problem with powder-coated hardware. Someone suggested a thin plastic spacer between the hinges and the cedar to prevent contact at those wear points. Other alternatives I've considered are fiberglass hinges, remaking the gates in a different wood, or living with cleaning the streaks (oxalic acid).