You can speed up germination by soaking them in water for 24 hrs. After that it should take about 2 weeks. Without the water treatment 3-4 weeks. If you got these seeds in the wild they usually have a very poor germination rate–that is they make a lot of bad seeds. If you got them from a seed company they should have sorted the bad seeds out.

It should germinate like any other seed. It is a good choice to grow. Redwoods are one of our oldest living natural resouces. I have seen then in CA over 1000 years old.