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Size: 10" x 3" Shipping Weight: 7# Moisture Content: Air-Dried and Waxed Features: This blank is going to produce a very striking bowl, see photos. This blank has two shallow drying checks that will easily turn out. About: This wood is very rare, as far as I can tell, we are the only ones offering this wood on the web. When you start turning this blank on your lathe, your shop will be filled with a delightful aroma, not as pungent as red cedar, its more delicate and very pleasant. These trees do not generally grow in the wild, the ones that we have came from speciman trees planted in home yards and had to be removed because of a hurricane or other problem. This Biblical tree was used in the Temple built by Solomon. Of the many different kinds of trees whose wood qualities caused them to be called cedars, the Lebanese is the original. It is Cedrus, Latinized from the ancient Greek kedros, and grows not only in Lebanon but in Turkey and adjacent countries; it is the Biblical cedar. In the world there are only three true cedars, none native to the new world. The bark of the Cedar of Lebanon is dark gray and exudes a gum of balsam which makes the wound so fragrant that to walk in a grove of cedars is an utmost delight. The wood is astonishingly decay resistant and it is never eaten by insect larvae. It is of a beautiful red tone, and very solid. The importance of the cedar of Lebanon to the various civilizations is conveyed through its uses. The Egyptians used its resin to mummify their deads and thus called it the "life of death", and cedar sawdust was found in the tombs of the Phaeros as well. Phaeros and Pagans had the tradition of burning the cedar coming from Lebanon with their offerings and in their ceremonies. Jew priests however, were ordered by Moses to use the peel of the Lebanese Cedar in circumcision and treatment of leprosy. According to the Talmoud, Jews used to burn Lebanese cedarwood on the mountain of olives announcing the beginning of the new year. These trees are the most renowned natural monuments in the universe; religion, poetry and history have all equally celebrated them. The Arabs entertain a traditional veneration for these trees, attributing to them a vegetative power which enable them to live eternally, and an 'intelligence' which causes them to manifest signs of wisdom and foresight they are said to understand the changes of the seasons as they stir their vast branches, inclining them towards heaven or earth accordingly as the snow proposes to fall or melt. It is said that the snows have no sooner begun to fall then these Cedars turn their branches to rise insensibly, gathering their points upwards, forming, as it were, a pyramid or parasol. Assuming this new shape, they can sustain the immense weight of snow remaining upon them for so long.
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