How hard is Australian Cedar?

Australian Cedar has a Janka hardness of about 600 lbf (2,670 N), per USDA Forest Products Laboratory reference values at 12% moisture content. That is soft for a hardwood, so it works easily but holds fasteners about as well as any soft hardwood.

Is Australian Cedar good for outdoor use?

Its heartwood is moderately durable to durable, but the narrow whitish-to-pale-tan sapwood is bug bait, especially for powderpost beetles. The wood has been used for boat planking, though most listed applications are interior.

What is Australian Cedar used for?

Common uses include furniture, cabinetry, joinery, interior trim, boat planking, instruments, carving, and decorative veneer. It planes, glues, stains, and finishes clean, making it well suited to fine interior work.

ExoticToona ciliata

Australian Cedar

True hardwood despite the name. Often mistaken for mahogany.

Australian Cedar (Toona ciliata) is an exotic hardwood with a Janka hardness of 600 lbf. A true hardwood despite the name, its heartwood is pale pink to brick-red, and it carries a fragrant cedar-like scent at the cut.

Category: Exotic
Janka: 600 lbf
Botanical: Toona ciliata
Shipped at: 6–8% MC

Toona ciliata Australian Red Cedar / Toona · Australian Red Cedar / Toona · Native to a broad range from northern India and Nepal through Southeast Asia

Native to a broad range from northern India and Nepal through Southeast Asia.

True hardwood despite the name. Heartwood pale pink to brick-red.

Detail of Australian Cedar grain — figured wood texture, photographed at Raw Heartwood — A close read on the grain. Detail of this specimen

What you see.

Heartwood pale pink to brick-red. Deepens with age and light. Sapwood narrow, whitish to pale tan, sharp line. Flatsawn faces show a clean ring figure.

Heartwood color detail of Australian Cedar (Toona ciliata)

Heartwood, this specimen

How the grain runs.

Straight to slightly interlocked. Medium to coarse texture with a soft luster. Ring-porous — reads a lot like Spanish cedar, which is its cousin.

Closer detail of Australian Cedar grain figure

Closer in

On the bench.

Heartwood moderately durable to durable. Sapwood is bug bait — powderpost beetles in particular. Soft and easy. Planes, glues, stains, finishes clean. End grain fuzzes if your edges are dull. Holds fasteners about as well as a soft hardwood holds anything. Fragrant cedar-like smell at the cut. Same family as Spanish cedar, same scent. Reactions are uncommon. Fine dust can hit the lungs over long sessions. Standard PPE.

The numbers, looked at directly.

Janka Hardness

0lbf

2,670 N. Side-hardness — force to embed a half-inch steel ball halfway into the wood.

Average Dried Weight

0lbs/ft³

430 kg/m³. At 12% MC.

Specific Gravity

0.36/ 0.43 at 12% MC

Basic over green volume; second number at 12% moisture content.

Hardness, in context

A side-hardness measurement. Higher number, harder wood.

Shrinkage — radial / tangential / volumetric

3.5%radial

6.2%tangential

9.8%volumetric

On sourcing

Where this wood comes from matters.

Not on CITES. Not on the IUCN Red List. Old-growth Australian stands got logged hard a century ago — most current supply is plantation. Other Meliaceae are CITES-listed, so confirm legal-origin paperwork.

What it's for.

Furniture
Cabinetry
Joinery
Interior trim
Boat planking
Instruments
Carving
Decorative veneer

Worth knowing.

True hardwood despite the name. Often called Australian Red Cedar. Hawaiian plantation stock turns up in small batches and gets confused with mahogany at a glance.

Sources & references.

Toona ciliata (Red Cedar) — IUCN Red List — Barstow, M. (2018)
Toona ciliata — Wikipedia contributors
Australian Red Cedar (Toona ciliata) — The Wood Database
Toona ciliata — PlantNET, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
Toona ciliata — Atlas of Living Australia
Toona ciliata (Australian red cedar) — CABI Compendium

Common questions.

How hard is Australian Cedar?: Australian Cedar has a Janka hardness of about 600 lbf (2,670 N), per USDA Forest Products Laboratory reference values at 12% moisture content. That is soft for a hardwood, so it works easily but holds fasteners about as well as any soft hardwood.
Is Australian Cedar good for outdoor use?: Its heartwood is moderately durable to durable, but the narrow whitish-to-pale-tan sapwood is bug bait, especially for powderpost beetles. The wood has been used for boat planking, though most listed applications are interior.
What is Australian Cedar used for?: Common uses include furniture, cabinetry, joinery, interior trim, boat planking, instruments, carving, and decorative veneer. It planes, glues, stains, and finishes clean, making it well suited to fine interior work.

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