Spalted Poplar

[Danny Hamsley]

Is spalted poplar desirable for making bowls and such? I saw hardwood for furniture on my Woodmizer LT15, but I am no wood turner. I was wondering if it had any turning value or should I just use it for firewood?

[Steve Mawson]

I would give it a try. Normal Poplar is a little blah being pretty white except for the hartwood which is darker. Spalting should give the wood more character. Just my guess.

[Chris Haas]

have never had spalted poplar, i imagine i would get real punky, if it isnt though, turn it up, whats the worst that can happen, afterall, you just going to use it for firewood anyways

[David E Keller]

Definitely maybe... depends on what it looks like and whether it has gone punky or not. If it's got some nice spalt lines or color spalt or both, you can bet a turner somewhere would be interested.

[Ted Calver]

I've done some nice flatwood boxes out of spalted poplar. The figure was outstanding...even had a touch of red in it. No reason why it wouldn't turn nicely as long as it wasn't punky. If youv'e sawn it how did the figure look?

[Danny Hamsley]

The figure is pretty nice and I rescued it before it got punky. In fact, it is about downright perfect in terms of good spalt and good sound wood. I need to take and post a picture.

[Allen Neighbors]

Mike Mahoney, at SWAT a couple of weeks ago, said he uses some poplar. Even bland wood makes beautiful utility bowls. Go for it! :)

[Jeff Nicol]

Danny, Just wondering if it is Tulip poplar? Up here in WI we sometimes call Aspen "POPPLE" or poplar which it is not. The Cottonwood tree is a poplar I believe and it looks wonderful spalted! Here is a picture of the latest spalted Cottonwood bowl I have done. Very nice stuff to turn too. This one is 9"x3" with 1/4" thickness. Is this what the wood looks like?

Jeff

[Danny Hamsley]

Jeff,

It is definitely yellow poplar because I harvested the tree from my Tree Farm and sawed it on my woodmizer sawmill. You are definitley right in pointing out that many people who refer to poplar are referring to one of the various aspens. Here in Georgia, there are no aspens or popple, but we do have cottonwood. I have never sawn any cottonwood, but I know the wood is soft.

[Jeff Nicol]

Danny, I use Yellow (Tulip) poplar for drawer sides and other items that need light and stable wood. The inner heart wood has the cool greenish color that is nice for bowl turning. I have a Woodmizer LT30 that I have sawn almost 900,000 bd ft on and it being a 1985 model it still keeps on cutting! So any way the Cottonwood and the Yellow poplar are cousins and have pretty much the same density of wood and coloration in them. I have a cottonwood in my back yard that is about 48" across, I thought it was going to die a couple years ago, but it was infested with a worm that ate all the leaves off when it was just starting to bud out. I was dreaming of all the giant bowls I was going to turn! But it bounced back and filled our yard with leaves the last week! Here is a picture of the trunk, as you can see it looks a lot like the Tulip Poplar bark.

Find a turner or send some to me I will turn it!

Have a great day,

Jeff

[Danny Hamsley]

Wow Jeff, you have me beat by a mile in sawmill production. And on a LT30 to boot! My little LT15 saws fine lumber, just not as fast as your mill! Sawdust is in my blood :D.

I will take and post a pic. I sliced the log thru the pith, so the green heartwood is on one side and the light sap on the other. Most of the spalt is visible on the sap side. Thanks for the offer! I end sealed the blanks with anchorseal (wonderful stuff...). I measured the blanks last night and they are 5" thick and about 10" to 11" square.

[steven carter]

Danny,

That stuff is dangerous to have around! I think you should send it to me and I will see to it that it is disposed of properly.;)

Seriously, I have done a couple tulip poplar bowls, but the grain was nothing to write home about, pretty plain. I would think the spalting would make up for this deficiency though.


Steve

[Danny Hamsley]

OK, I said that I would post a picture. Here is the picture of the best figured blank. It is 4 7/8" thick, 11 3/4"wide, and 12" long. The second picture is the reverse side. The dark yellow color is moisture, nut punk.

[Cindy Navarro]

I think you should get rid of it and send it to people who want to waste their time making beautiful bowls out of it. LOL.
Look real pretty to me and I bet it makes great bowls.

[Dennis Peacock]

SURE YOU CAN!!! It's wood ain't it?!!! ;)

Have a look at more nice poplar here. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=63438&highlight=spalted+poplar) and then again maybe you can look here too. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=39172&highlight=spalted+poplar) :D

It's wonderful stuff. You don't need to find it spalted. You can "make" it spalt. Easy to do. I just sit my logs upright in the shop on top of some lathe curlies, add some to the top of the log and wet it with water and let sit for about 6 months. That's how those two bowls came to be. ;)

Now....get in there and turn ya a bunch of it. It finishes nicely too.!

[Danny Hamsley]

Wow Dennis, those YP bowls were outstanding! Yours have more spalt than what may be in these blanks. Nature spalted my blanks outside. Say more about how you achieve that perfect spalt inside the shop please.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Jeff,

It is definitely yellow poplar because I harvested the tree from my Tree Farm and sawed it on my woodmizer sawmill. You are definitley right in pointing out that many people who refer to poplar are referring to one of the various aspens. Here in Georgia, there are no aspens or popple, but we do have cottonwood. I have never sawn any cottonwood, but I know the wood is soft.

Contrary to the common believe that the Tulip Tree is a Poplar or related to the Poplars, that is in fact not so.

There are just two Tulip trees that are related to each other, one in China/Korea and the other one our N. American Tulip Tree, the closed relative are the Magnolias, Cucumber tree and others in that family.

I'll add a couple of short pieces that will tell about this and there's more info on it, though usually it tells more about what size those trees can reach and the shape of the leaves and look of the flowers.

I have turned a few pieces of Tulip wood, some with the purple striping and some with a little spalting, turns well, but it is like what was mentioned already a soft wood, spalting makes it nicer yet