Replies

1. 
   jackplane | Jan 18, 2006 10:15pm | #1

   wipe it with mineral spirits. this is just resin and can be easily removed.

    

1. 
   dimitri | Jan 19, 2006 12:35am | #2

   Thanks! I will do that. Why does this resin leak out like that?

   Dimitri

2. 
   JohnWW | Jan 19, 2006 01:21am | #3

   Dimitri,

   I agree with the first answer that you are probably seeing pitch from a pocket of resin that sometimes forms in trees from the cedar and pine families.  I haven't worked with aromatic cedar that much, but I can't recall ever seeing pitch pockets in the wood.  I suppose it could possibly be pitch from the pine behind the cedar lining that has found its way through a seam in the cedar. 

   Ordinary pine is kiln dried in part to harden the pitch, because unhardened it can seep out of the wood for years.  I have a pine chest that still leaks a bit of pitch on the hottest days of summer twenty years after I made it.  Aromatic cedar may not be kiln dried because it might evaporate the oils that create the cedar smell.

   I would not recommend trying to remove the pitch with a solvent, for one reason, pitch doesn't come off quite that easy if it is anything like the pitch from white pine.  The second, more important reason, is the smell of the solvent will linger in the chest for possibly a very long time and the solvent's smell will transfer to clothes stored in the chest.  I would use a cabinet scraper to get the pitch off the wood and then clean the scraper with a solvent, it will probably be an annoying job, nothing is quite as sticky as pine resins. 

   In any case, removing the pitch is likely only a short term fix, it will probably appear again repeatedly.  If that happens the only solution would be to replace the cedar.  Someone might suggest using shellac to seal the wood, but I have never seen shellac stop actively leaking pitch.

   John W.

   
   

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   Edited 1/18/2006 5:33 pm ET by JohnWW

1. 
   Daleinok | Jan 19, 2006 03:51am | #4

   You can seal the cedar with a good spar varnish, however the reason for a cedar chest is the smell and this will mute it if not entirely.  Aromatic Cedar does have pitch and will leak, but it's not all that common.

   Good Luck

    

   Doc*None of the secrets of success will work unless you do!

3. 
   jackplane | Jan 19, 2006 05:35pm | #5

   As John pointed out, this happens with a number of softwoods and has to do with the tree's growth cycle, transfer of nutrients etc.

     He's probably right, a cabinet scraper would better than spirits to remove the resin.