Anyone have any experience with this? I've heard it can be tricky to stabilize cedar because of the oiliness and resins, though this piece seems pretty dry. I'm just reluctant to waste any making mistakes when I could've done something to solve the problem beforehand.
I know its not Japanese cedar but... I also heard cedar could be tricky to stabilize so I contacted K&G about stabilizing some eastern red cedar I had and told them I heard there could be problems and they said no problem. Had some stabilized and its fine.
I have had cedar stabilized, too. It needs to be dried fro a long time to assure that the volatile oils are as gone as possible. For more details, check with Ben at Greenberg woods and/or with Ken at K&G.
The Japanese cedar you have is almost certainly Cryptomeria japonica, also known as sugi cedar. Ive had it stabilized dozens of times and it works very well. Samples i have go from ~.35 g/cm^3 to over 1.12 g/cm^3 when K&G is done with them. I cant tell you how to do it yourself, but i will tell you it can be done without issue.