I saw a coffee shop once with custom furniture, wall paneling and "arty pieces" made from juniper (white outer wood and red heartwood).

A park that I used to hike in cut down many junipers one year, perhaps they were diseased. I brought in my bow saw and backpacked out some small logs. I used the white wood as tinder & kindling, but saved the aromatic heart wood to use as incense, or "incense shingles".

I would split a thin rectangle an inch or two on a side, then set that on top of charcoal, with a bit of resinous incense like copal or frankincense on top. The wood would heat up and start to char on the bottom as the incense boiled ... then around the time most of the juniper and resin essence were gone, it would flash into flame for a few seconds and be gone.

It might have smelled even better with true cedar.

Interesting, Rick. How long would the incense smell remain if you used the juniper heartwood to build furniture. For cedar I think it is pretty much there forever if you sand lightly to refresh the smell.

Mine dried out and became less aromatic in a few months, but that was just the surface. If I chipped another shingle off, only half of the first one would be pale and less scented. The whole log (or branch - the heartwood was mostly only 2-3 inches thick) would hold it's internal oils for at least a few years.

I could split them thinner than I needed. To serve as a 'frying pan" for a bead of resinous incense, around 3-5 mm thick was good. That gave plenty of 'cedar' scent before the incense began to boil, and it lasted longer.

Ill have to check if Alabama juniper has the same fragrance. I love the smell of woods, even pine lumber smells good to me. And of course sandalwood is my favorite--or used to be. I understand the sandalwood trees are now extinct. At least there is still plenty of juniper and cedar!