Drawer Side Material

[Tom Winship]

Hey guys, this is probably not the exactly correct forum to ask this, but what is your opinion on poplar for drawer sides? Too soft?

[Andrew Gibson]

I have used popular for drawer sides a time or two and it works well.
I find that soft maple works better... and looks better.
Around here popular is about $2.20 bf and soft maple is about $3.35 bf
If I can afford it I will use maple.

[Robert Rozaieski]

Poplar has been used sucessfully for drawer sides (and other secondary parts) for hundreds of years. No reason it shouldn't work just as well today ;).

[Bruce Page]

Tom, I made a set of 5 drawers using popular last year. Maybe it was the batch I had but I found the popular to be brittle and difficult to chisel.

[Rick Erickson]

Poplar is just fine but I too prefer maple because it usually provides a greater contrast for the dovetails.

[Don C Peterson]

For me the most important characteristic of drawer sides is stability. QS Sycamore and Sweetgum are some of the woods I like to use. Now that I'm in Fl, I'm thinking that I may try to get a supply of QS Cypress.

[Tom McMahon]

Traditionally what ever was abundant, cheap and easy to work by hand was used for drawer sides, it varied by region. Lots of poplar and northern white pine. After the 1830's you begin to see maple and oak used more often because it machines well and is more suited to factory work, but poplar was still used extensively.

[Tom Winship]

Thanks, all. One thing that I forgot to mention was that the drawers will slide on the bottom of the sides. The price here is certainly right. $1.50 approx.

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

Something important to know is whether you're getting Populus spp. (which is very soft, sort of like white pine) or Liriodendron tulipifera (aka tulip poplar, which is a superb secondary wood in almost every way). I know locally whenever they sell "poplar" it's tulip poplar, but I dunno what it would be like in Texas. Tulip poplar has a sort of greenish tinge to it, the Populus species are more stark white.

[Tom Winship]

What I have has sort of a greenish tint to it. Is that good?

[Frank Drew]

It means that it's tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera); in addition to the green, you'll also sometimes see purple or black streaks. In my experience, the green and purple don't tend to persist once the wood is finished and a little older, though.

As others have said, tulip poplar is a very acceptable secondary wood; I used a lot of it for drawer sides at one time, but eventually switched over to quartered white oak, sometimes quartered ash.

[Tony Shea]

I also use a lot of Tulip Poplar for my secondary woods, specifically drawer sides. It cuts and chisels extremely well for me and has been durable enough in most my peices that it gets used. The price is good on the stuff as well. If I am going all out and making an all around expensive peice with top notch woods I will then use a more durable and stable wood for the sides of drawers such as QS oak, QS ash, etc. I like a nice contrast as well to highlight my dovetails therefore sometimes will go with a darker wood. I have tried some Wenge drawer sides (which is a bit of a waste of a great wood) as I wanted to see how the natural oils helped with lubrication of the drawer action and also figured it would last forever. This was just a one time experiment and really didn't see an advantage over more common woods. Will not waste good wenge on a drawer side again.

[David Keller NC]

Poplar's a great wood for drawer sides. There are some that prefer maple or oak for durability, but in my opinion they're a nightmare to hand-cut dovetails in because even a slight misaligment in your tails and pins may result in a cracked side. Poplar and the other king of the drawer-side -woods, eastern white pine, have a juge advantage in that the tail can be a little tight, and the hardwood pin from the front of the drawer will compress the softer poplar/white pin.

Maple can be used, but your sawing and fitting must be dead-on. Because of maple's hardness and brittleness, it's just as easy to crack the side or break one of the tails.

The only drawback of poplar over cypress, eastern white pine, yellow hard pine, and other common draw side material is that poplar has an objectionable smell - sort of like wet dog. That will fade over time, but in my own case, I prefer EWP because of its pleasant scent.

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

Yup, that's tulip poplar. It'll do just fine.