Which is better for reducing tearout, oak or poplar?

[Louis Brandt]

Hello,

As I begin my bookcase project, I need to decide whether to use oak or poplar. I’m not going to use plywood. Instead, I will use 1x8 either solid oak or solid poplar, but I need to know which one would be less subject to tearout (from routing dados and rabbets).

I’m going to paint the bookshelf, so grain doesn’t matter to me, neither does cost, so my only concern is to get as little tearout as possible.

Which, do you think, will give me less tearout, oak or poplar?

Thanks,
Louis

[Lee Schierer]

Poplar will likely give you less tear out and will be easier to paint than the oak.

[John Gregory]

What Lee said. Poplar is great to mill and work with. Paints up great, you can get a very smooth finish with it.

[Jerome Hanby]

I'll third that, unless you are wanting to show off the grain or need something hard as a rock, poplar is great stuff to work.

[Frank Drew]

Ditto. By just about every measure I can think of, poplar is the more appropriate wood for this project (cost, workability, paintability, etc.)

Unless you want that open-pore under paint look, which can be nice, of course.

[John Thompson]

I am a oak man by nature but.. in your case where you are going to paint it I agree with all popular vote. :) It is indeed easy to work which is a definite plus in this case.

[Jay Yoder]

I would go with Poplar, it is gentle on your blades and bits! It paints up great too!

[Peter Quinn]

Poplar or soft maple would be my choices for this type of project. Oak would not be high on my list of paint grade materials.

[scott spencer]

As long as your painting it, I'd go with poplar. I've seen some unpainted poplar furniture that looked good, but most of the stuff we get around here is fairly unattractive....has greenish/yellow streaks running through it and little grain contrast.

You can reduce tearout by using good quality sharp cutters and a backerboard, then you can choose the wood that looks best to you. Good luck!

[Jason White]

Yep! Ditto that.


Poplar will likely give you less tear out and will be easier to paint than the oak.

[John Keeton]

I am only posting because you do not yet have a definitive answer:D Poplar, for sure!! Besides, it seems such a shame to hide the oak behind some paint. Poplar, if good and clear, can stain and finish up nicely. I used it as stained trim in our home. But, it makes for much better painted work.

[Mike Parzych]

One thing to consider though, is that oak is stiffer and can carry more weight than poplar before sagging. Here's a link that'll tell you if there will be sag, given the dimensions of the shelves, and weight on them:

http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm