How to Identify Coast Redwood or Giant Sequoia
Recognize redwood by its rust-red heartwood, pale sapwood, straight grain, prominent soft/hard growth rings, feather-light weight, and lack of resin scent.
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Start with color and weight together. Redwood heartwood is a warm reddish tone — pinkish-brown, cherry-red, or a deep rust/reddish-orange — set against a thin band of pale, nearly white sapwood. If a board shows that rusty-red heart with a clean pale sapwood edge and feels light and soft in the hand, redwood is a strong candidate. A thumbnail presses in easily, confirming the low density.
Read the growth rings, which are highly diagnostic on this sample. Redwood shows a strong contrast between soft, wide earlywood and a darker, harder latewood line, so the annual rings stand out as a clear, prominent pattern — pronounced on flat-sawn faces as bold cathedral figure, and on quartersawn ('vertical grain') stock as tight, straight, parallel lines. The grain is generally straight and the texture medium to coarse and even, with a low matte luster rather than any glassy sheen.
Check the end grain and smell. As a softwood, redwood has no pores (no ring of vessels) — instead you see the abrupt earlywood-to-latewood transition of the annual rings and, unlike pines and firs, no resin canals and no sticky pitch. Freshly cut redwood is largely non-aromatic: it lacks the sweet resinous scent of pine or the pencil-cedar smell of the true cedars, which is itself a useful negative clue. It splinters readily along the soft earlywood.
The likeliest confusions are with other reddish softwoods. Western red cedar is similar in color and decay resistance and also light, but it has a distinct spicy, aromatic scent that redwood lacks, and tends to a browner, less rust-red tone. Eastern redcedar (aromatic cedar) is strongly fragrant and shows knotty, streaky purple-red-and-white color, unlike redwood's cleaner heart. Douglas fir can be reddish but is harder and denser, often with a more orange-tan cast and a resinous smell. Distinguishing coast redwood from giant sequoia by eye alone is difficult — the woods are very similar — but sequoia tends to be slightly more brittle and is seldom encountered as lumber, so most 'redwood' you meet is coast redwood.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to recognize redwood?
Look for warm rust-red heartwood against a thin pale sapwood, feel how light and soft it is, and check for bold contrast between soft and hard growth rings. That color-plus-lightness-plus-strong-rings combination points to redwood.
How do I tell redwood from western red cedar?
Smell it. Western red cedar has a distinct spicy, aromatic odor, while redwood is largely non-aromatic. Redwood also tends to a redder, rustier heartwood tone, whereas cedar leans browner.
Can I tell coast redwood from giant sequoia by looking at the wood?
Not reliably. The two woods are very similar in color, weight, and grain. Giant sequoia is somewhat more brittle and is rarely sold as lumber, so almost all commercial 'redwood' is coast redwood.
Does redwood have visible pores like oak?
No. It is a softwood, so the end grain shows growth rings rather than open pores. Look for the abrupt soft-earlywood-to-hard-latewood transition, and note the absence of resin canals and pitch that pines and firs have.