Drawer use of elm?

[Joe McMahon]

I am at the drawer building stage in the construction of an Arts & Crafts quarter sawn white oar armoire. The drawer fronts will be QSWO. I was going to use poplar for the sides and back, butfind that have no poplar on hand. I do however, have some elm. I have never used elm before and wondered if it would be suitable for drawer sides?

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have sawed a fair amount of elm at the sawmill over the last 10 years and have used a little myself, most has been sold as lumber. My experience is that it tends to wiggle a bit as it dries, and is not the most seasonally stable of woods even when fully dried. I am sure that not all elm is equal, though, so perhaps yours will work fine for you.
Zach

[Ed Labadie]

I wouldn't use Elm....IME, it moves around like a hooker in church.

Ed

[Joe McMahon]

I wouldn't use Elm....IME, it moves around like a hooker in church.

Ed

Thanks. With all of the work and expense, I won’t risk using unstable drawer parts.

[Jeff Heath]

To add, if you're building this piece with drawers that will be a friction slide...i.e. wood sliding drawer on wood, you will want to choose a species for the drawers that will wear well. I think poplar is a fine choice for drawers where a mechanical slide is used, but for wood friction contact, it's not a good choice. It will wear quickly, and make for a sloppy fitting drawer after several years of use.

Just a thought.

I like white oak, maple, or ash for drawer construction.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Jeff. I'd personally use maple for this purpose if you're doing wood-on-wood sliding. With metal slides, no question I'd likely use poplar since I have a ton of it on-hand, milled off our property. I agree with him that white oak is great for this, but it wouldn't provide much contrast with the QSWO you're using for the piece if that's important to you.

[Robert Engel]

Jeff I use poplar all the time for drawers and never have had an issue with excessive wearing. OK, I've seen some 150 yr old antiques maybe but realistically I don't think its an issue.

For something like a file drawer or a very deep drawer, I attach a strip of white oak to the bottom.

That being said, I nice white wood like maple would sure look good.

[ernest dubois]

In fact poplar- lets take Populus canadensis because it is widespread and fairly representative and avoids confusing it with tulip wood - is particularly resistant to abrasion because it has these long stringy tough fibers. Further back used to floor the hay loft just for this reason and more recently often as standard flooring in freight cars. It is one of the many peculiarities of this wood.

[Jim Becker]

Emest, in the US, Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera -- a Magnolia family member) is extremely common and is used extensively in the furniture industry, too. It's one of the tallest growing trees in the Eastern US. In the western US, there are sometimes other varieties of "poplar" cited...related to aspens and other true-poplars...but those are "pretty fuzzy" in my experience. Tulip poplar is a "softer hardwood" and is reasonably durable. As Robert indicates it can be used for the purpose stated, but any true concerns about wear can either be mitigated with a harder runner surface laminated on or by just using something even more durable for the whole drawer.

[Andrew Hughes]

Is it not a better idea for the drawer to take the wear. Then the carcass .
In my mind I would find worn drawer sides easy to fix.
Of course this all depends on piece of furniture lasting long enough in our "throw away" or "best bang for the buck" way of life.

[Dave Cav]

In the western US, there are sometimes other varieties of "poplar" cited...related to aspens and other true-poplars...but those are "pretty fuzzy" in my experience.


In Washington State I used a local sawmill that mostly cut alder from property being developed, mostly for export. When the housing market cratered in 2008 their source of alder (smaller building lots) dried up so they retooled their mill and started cutting cottonwood, mostly for pallet lumber. They did experiment with kiln drying 4/4 stock with reasonable success and sold it as "West Coast Poplar". It's miserable stuff to use, stringy with lots of reaction wood, and it stinks.

[ernest dubois]

In Washington State I used a local sawmill that mostly cut alder from property being developed, mostly for export. When the housing market cratered in 2008 their source of alder (smaller building lots) dried up so they retooled their mill and started cutting cottonwood, mostly for pallet lumber. They did experiment with kiln drying 4/4 stock with reasonable success and sold it as "West Coast Poplar". It's miserable stuff to use, stringy with lots of reaction wood, and it stinks.
If there are commonly used distinctions to clear it up that's all that matters but tulip wood as I know it is often confused with poplar and has some visually similar characteristics and is soft like poplar, though I wouldn't want to comment on its structure and abrasion characteristics, but this is why I make the reference to the Canadian poplar which is a true poplar, a wide ranging species, that produces consistent quality timber. This is not so much the case with Cottonwood as I know it and can believe that it could be not the most reliable source of wood.

It makes sense to me that worked in particular ways poplar could come out fuzzy. Considering its fibrous structure I believe it would not lend itself to too vigorous a sanding though I have never worked with it that way myself to know for sure. I have always found that it machines well and if not a good hand planing leaves a fine surface.

[Peter Christensen]

I would use the Elm. You have it and it wouldn't take you long to cut and dress it into drawer size pieces. If it doesn't move you're golden. I've alway found western and eastern maple to move a lot when working it. I helped the old man strip and repair antiques when I was young in his refinishing business. I don't remember Elm drawer parts specifically but saw enough Elm armoires, chest of drawers, tables and chairs made with it and don't recall them being any more warped than the Oak, Walnut, or Mahogany that came through. What else will you do with the Elm if not for this?

[Bradley Gray]

+1 on using the elm. I pulled a slab of elm out of my lumber stacks today for a furniture project that's been drying for 10 years or more, 12' long and dried without checking or warping. Hard enough to wear well.

[ernest dubois]

Quarter sawn.

[Jeff Heath]

Something to consider. Using elm for furniture projects and using elm for a piston fit drawer are two different animals. First of all, there are 13 different "Elm" listings in the North American Wood database. Do you know which species you have? It's listed clearly as a "poor" choice for any projects where stability is needed (uh...I think a drawer qualifies) because it has a high percentage of seasonal movement, and is known to warp/cup/twist a lot.

If you're building furniture for your own self, and you want to give the elm a whirl because you've got it and you don't mind using the drawers later as firewood kindling if all goes wrong, then sure....go ahead and use the elm.

If you're trying to up your game, or are building a piece of furniture that you're going to stamp your name, and thus your integrity, on and sell to a client, then it's probably not such a good idea to roll the dice and see 10 years from now if the drawer is going to bow so bad that it locks itself inside it's space.

You can certainly make some beautiful rustic furniture or cabinetry if you make sure you allow for it's movement, and use joinery that takes into consideration it's lack of stability. The interlocking grain of elm can cause all sorts of issues, but if you like the look, and don't mind the work because you've already got it, then go for it.

I am personally never going to choose a wood species for a project that I know is likely to fail, just because I already have it. So, I can't in good conscience recommend it on a forum where a lot of different people with different skill and knowledge levels come to get true questions answered. If you're the type that enjoys the hobby in such a way as to be driven to use whatever you have in the rack, then that's a different discussion.