Spanish Cedar price per board foot
Plan on about $7.95 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $31.80.
Spanish cedar has fooled everyone twice — it's not Spanish, and it's not cedar. It's a true mahogany relative whose scent happens to pair so perfectly with tobacco that no serious humidor has ever been lined with anything else. Before cigars claimed it, that same insect-repelling perfume lined steamer trunks and wardrobes; and for two centuries, classical guitar necks have been carved from it for its steadiness and feather weight.
Light, aromatic, insect-resistant — humidors, linings, and exterior millwork. Soft and occasionally gummy; a true mahogany relative.
Spanish Cedar at a glance
| Price per board foot | $7.95 (2026-08) |
| Weight, dry | 29 lb/ft³ · 2.4 lb per BF |
| Janka hardness | 600 lbf |
| Shrinkage, green → oven-dry | 6.2% tangential · 4.1% radial |
| Cost of 10 BF | $79.50 |
| Cost of 25 BF | $198.75 |
What common thicknesses cost
Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):
| Thickness | Board feet | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | 4.0 | $31.80 | 10 lb |
| 6/4 | 6.0 | $47.70 | 15 lb |
| 8/4 | 8.0 | $63.60 | 19 lb |
| 12/4 | 12.0 | $95.40 | 29 lb |
Will it stay flat?
Light, stable, and bug-repellent by nature — the exact trio that made it the lining of everything precious.
The measured numbers: drying from green, spanish cedar shrinks about 6.2% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 4.1% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.
Buying spanish cedar without regrets
Common at hardwood dealers in clean, wide, well-behaved boards. Do the sniff test before you pay: the occasional board weeps sticky resin for years, and it announces itself with a sharp turpentine note. Leave that one for someone else.
At the finishing bench
Inside a humidor: nothing, ever — raw wood is the entire mechanism. Everywhere else it finishes like a soft mahogany; hit knots and any resin streaks with a coat of shellac first and it behaves.
Sources & further reading
Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: White Oak ($6.75). A step up: Sapele ($8.25).