Hi Spidey,

No direct experience with your problem, just a couple of thoughts...

Have you got your forms setup yet? Buy one board rip a test strip off of it and see if it will bend around the bad spots. If it is too brittle you should find out right away.

Can you get a sample of a "fresh" board to test your "good old cedar" against? An "over the knee" test of similar size samples should give you an idea if one is much more brittle that the other. This may be quite subjective because there is a great varience in the wood - even in the same species (compliments of Mother Nature).

I don't think that cedar is as bad as some woods for drying out, cedar has a reputation for surviving a long time in adverse conditions. Problems with wood drying out may be related to climate and changes in conditions - like up here in the north where the winters can be cold and dry (or just VERY dry in heated areas) and hot and humid in the summer.

As you point out, you temperature and humidity as pretty steady (relative to what we see here anyway).

Try a test - good luck!

Hank