poplar questions

[Karl Card]

I am going to look at some poplar this weekend, I have a bad, bad feeling that I am going to have to buy it. 20 boards, 16 feet long x 6 inches wide x 1.5 inches thick rough sawn. 8 bucks a board...

Now I have never had any poplar so I would not mind some details as far as hardness etc....

I am thinking of making the wife something like a nice book case, would this be good for that?

as always thanks for any info.

[Alan Trout]

I use poplar a lot for secondary wood in furniture and cabinets. I like making drawer boxes out of it and such. It machines very well and takes paint better than most woods. Really works well for paint grade cabinets.

Good Luck

Alan

[John Hart]

I just bought enough poplar to build a 450 sq ft deck. Thicknesses between 4/4 and 8/4 rough sawn boards and some 4X4 beams. It behaved very well. Hardness-wise...I would put it slightly softer than cherry...and a bit harder than pine. It cuts very well...sands to nice smoothness. The colors can be everywhere between dazzling to down-right plain. Takes a stain nicely...paints nicely...looks good with clear gloss lacqer too. (hic!:o) Good stuff for cabinetry as well as turning.:)

[John Keeton]

Karl, over the years, I have used hundreds of board feet of poplar for a variety of projects.

It works best for paint grade projects. If you have knot free wood, it will take stain nicely (though the color is somewhat unpredictable board to board), but it will fuzz on you. I have wet sanded it before to attempt to reduce the fuzz with limited success.

That said, a few coats of finish, sanding lightly between coats, and it does pretty well.

I will say that the price per bd ft is good ($.67), but you will not be able to resaw 1.5" stock and get 3/4" material. You are going to have a lot of waste and your effective cost is really closer to double that. Also, with 6" boards, you will have difficulty getting a good grain match for staining.

Just my thoughts. I can buy kiln dried poplar for around $1/ft in widths wider than 6", and I imagine in your area you could as well.

[Russell Johnson]

I'm doing a project with a fair amount of Poplar and Johns comments about feathering I've seen. I have noticed the color variations are not as bad if you use a dark stain as I've been doing.

[Roger Chandler]

Most cabinet and furniture makers use poplar for the secondary wood for areas that are not seen, such a drawer boxes and inner frame pieces, and use woods like cherry, oak, ash, maple, etc. [most hardwoods] for the fronts tops and sides that show in furniture and cabinetry.

My experience in using poplar is not to stain it, because the color variations can be very pronounced from board to board, and to even color, a wood conditioner would be best used to help, but you will still notice a good bit of variation.

Poplar does make beautiful painted furniture and cabinets though, and for turning it is nice to turn, but just know about the fuzz and putting a finish on will be an experiment to get to what you are looking for in the first place.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ditto what others have said. I don't like staining poplar but it does sand and paint well.

[Prashun Patel]

Wow, I'm surprised people have had good luck staining poplar. I have not. It is blotch prone.

Poplar is one the softest of the hardwoods. It is reasonably stable and easy to work with.

[Karl Card]

Well that is info that I really needed to know. I do not like to paint wood. The reason is I love wood for its natural beauty and it sounds like poplar for the most part is not really naturally beautiful...

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

[Karl Card]

I just bought enough poplar to build a 450 sq ft deck. Thicknesses between 4/4 and 8/4 rough sawn boards and some 4X4 beams. It behaved very well. Hardness-wise...I would put it slightly softer than cherry...and a bit harder than pine. It cuts very well...sands to nice smoothness. The colors can be everywhere between dazzling to down-right plain. Takes a stain nicely...paints nicely...looks good with clear gloss lacqer too. (hic!:o) Good stuff for cabinetry as well as turning.:)


John,
you ever been to lacquer anon...??? lol

[John Hart]

John,
you ever been to lacquer anon...??? lol

I don't do meetings.:p

[Jeff Nicol]

Karl, I would guess that when you say poplar you are talking about yellow or tulip poplar. Up here is Wisconsin and other places the aspen is called popple or poplar. So I just wanted to make sure what type of wood you are talking about. I think most every other response it thinking it is tulip poplar. It is one of the most stable and best woods for drawer sides and bottoms if you feel like gluing up thin boards for them. I have seen this wood go from cream colored to greenish brown. It can have some figure in it once in a while also. It carves well and will take stin and finishes of all sorts just fine. For staining to get away from any blotching the wood can be "Sized" or lightly sealed with a thinned down glue mixture to even out the woods desire to absorb stain. This is done on the pines to get away from the same problems. It can be done with very thin shellac also and sanded back abit before the stain is applied.

It does turn all right, but can be a brittle wood sometimes. The price is not bad for the size and if the are clear boards, it is always nice to have wood on hand.

Jeff

[John Keeton]

One thing to keep in mind - powder post beetles love poplar!!