Secondary woods

[Howard Skillington]

I am building a mahogany Greene & Greene style bedroom suite of my own design. Started with the bed and just finished a nightstand. I’m pleased with it, but it is a heavy little sucker. Next up: a nine drawer dresser, and I’m thinking I might do well to save some weight and maybe a few bucks, too, with the use of secondary wood.

The options: white pine, poplar, and soft maple, for possible use on drawer sides and bottoms, guides, runners, kickers, back rails, and framed back panel. I don’t want to compromise on long-term wear of the drawer runners or structural strength of the case pieces.

Which secondary woods have served you well for which components?

[David Eisenhauer]

I typically use either soft maple or poplar for drawer sides and internal frame pieces, as well as face frames for painted cabinetry. No issues with working either one, usually the selection goes for price and/or which one is available in better-for-me sizes at the time I need it. Your framed back panel may want to be finish-matched with the rest of the piece and I believe I would lean towards soft maple for that. Poplar blotches when staining, but it can be controlled fairly well with proper prep. I have used both for drawer side material for at least 30 years and, in my experience, both will work just fine.

David

[Robert Engel]

Its regional. Seems poplar is very common in traditional antique furniture.
Eastern white pine is another one, if its available to you.

In the south, you see cypress quite frequently.

I think the spruce at the big box stores would work ok.
I would by 2X material and resaw it most of the 1X material seems too knotty.

[Howard Skillington]

Thanks, David. This is helpful. I have found poplar to be very agreeable wood to work but, unpainted, it's not very pretty stuff. Clear white pine makes pretty drawers, but I worry about its structural strength. I had been leaning toward soft maple. Your thirty years' experience is reassuring.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Wow, maple is a secondary wood??? I consider it to be the good stuff!!! I use poplar because it's one of the few American woods available to me, thanks to HD. It's easy to work with, has a tight grain, and is relatively inexpensive. If you can get maple, however, that's better (my opinion) than Poplar, but as for weight, it's going to add, not subtract. Certainly it will be more durable in side-by-side comparisons, but poplar is more than durable enough for the task.

As for pine, I am not a fan of it for drawer parts because it moves a lot. Certainly there have been many thousands of furniture pieces that have successfully used it, but if given the option, I would choose maple or poplar over pine- just personal preference.

[Daniel Rode]

I find that pine typically moves less than soft maple or poplar. Some wood movement charts seem to support this, others see to show different numbers. My experience is very much like the link below.

Home center pine tends to twist and warp due to the way it's processed and dried. However, once it's dry and sized, I find even cheap BORG pine stable. Once the tension reaches equilibrium the pine moves predictably and less than other secondary woods.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/108898/calculating-for-wood-movement

[John Vernier]

For what it's worth, on original Greene and Greene furniture you won't see any secondary wood - they used the primary wood for drawer sides and bottoms, and finished drawers inside and bottom as well (shellac). It was an expensive and labor-intensive departure from traditional practice. When they made hidden drawer runners they typically used white oak, which wears very well.

[Howard Skillington]

Each of you raises some good points. According to my Lee Valley Wood Movement Reference Guide poplar and mahogany should be nearly perfectly compatible, soft maple will move somewhat less, and white pine only about half as much. I'm wondering if the range pf experience people have had with white pine may be due to larger variations in quality than we encounter with most hardwoods.

As for specific gravity, mahogany, poplar, and soft maple are all in the same ballpark, so no significant weight factor there, while white pine is, of course, quite a bit lighter.

I am fortunate in having a good source for all of these. As might be expected, white pine and poplar are the most economical, but soft maple is still pretty reasonable.

(I am aware, John, that the Brothers Greene weren't concerned about budget when building for their clients in Pasadena. So far my efforts aren't likely to be mistaken for originals, regardless of the species I use)

Anyhow, as expected, the relative merits of these options are mixed. That's why I welcome any additional reports you folks may care to share about your personal experience using each.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I use soft maple most times; poplar on occasion. Whatever scraps of the primary wood I have accumulated to keep the pile down.