My turn to ask questions of those who have worked with more types of timber than ne.
I am loving working in Lime wood .
As stated in another thread
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1599I only started carving in Lime in 2012.
But I would never go back to Pine or plywood having tried Lime.
Lime a lovely wood with almost no knots or grains.
Smooth clean and carves and sands like a dream.
I have been using bits of Oak for noses and chins and also to make the fingers of my puppet hands that 'bang the play board' .
I have only used oak for half the hand - glueing a slice of it to a bit of pine - as I never had much oak , and only used some small scraps I was given by another carver some years back.
My supply of Oak ran out the other week so I decided to go back to the place where I bought the Lime wood and actually buy some.
Sykes Timber at Atherstone was the woodyard ( midlands )
http://www.sykestimber.co.ukHere is photo from their website:

This is just one of several sheds on their site
As you can see they stock many different types of hardwoods
Had I wanted more Lime , I would have had to buy another great big slice ..actually larger than the planks shown in the pic.
This is what I did last time , and cut it into storable chunks.
I have enough Lime wood to see out my carving days and needs.
I had feared that to get any Oak I was going to have to buy a big quantity.
But when I phoned them to check , they told me that had done a lot of restructuring to the site since I was there in 2012 , and one of the improvements was an 'Offcuts" Shed.
Loads of different types of wood there , all arranged into named piles , and each bit individually marked and priced.
There was everything there , except Lime.
It was a joy to rummage around.
Here is my pic

They let me wander around in there and handpick the bits I wanted undisturbed ...which was great as I did not want to feel rushed by having someone stood over my shoulder all the time .
The only down side was that when I got to the shed , I did not know where the lightswitch was .
It was light enough by the windows to select the timber , but did not make for a great photo even with using flash.
I got some Oak chunks , enough to last me many years the amount I use.
Also some Idigbo which I had never heard of .

Idigbo are the thinner strips on the right of the pic.
I am told that it is used a lot in outdoor furniture. and it is fairly hardwiring.
I am going to try using that for making hands.
But my post here is to ask if anyone has carved Cedar ?
The reddish chunk of wood on the left is Cedar.
It felt very light in my hands , reminding me of Lime not only because of its weight , but also because of its very close grain and lack of knots.
Thought I might try a couple of heads in it and see how it handles.
Any advice please from anyone who base used Cedar
Thanks
Richard