Random question

[Jason Morgan]

Thought I would throw this out to the group and see what people knew.

Most quality furniture is/was made with two or more woods, say cherry for panels and fronts and poplar for dust frames and maple for drawer sides. I know that cherry in particular is a relatively low yield wood. 10-20% can be structurally fine but off in color or contain sapwood. You never hear of this wood being used for dust frames or drawer sides. Is sapwood much less stable? Is there some other reason not to use it? I would think that back in the day, they would be wanting to use every last piece.

Thanks,

Jason

[Jim Becker]

The factories likely specify sap-free material for the "good stuff". (assuming they even use real cherry...many don't and substitute a different species like alder and deal with things in the finishing process) In our own shops, however, I can think of no reason not to make best use of any scrap material, including pieces that contain sap. And on the other side of things, I don't consider Poplar a "secondary" wood in my shop...I build a lot of projects with it as the main material. (And I don't paint them, either...)

[Larry Norton]

Jim, I agree. Thi bench was built entirely of poplar, except for the birch plywood panels.

[Terry Flowers]

Jim, a lot of the poplar we see here in so. CA has a lot of green color/tint(I mean a lot, too much to just cut around without a lot of waste), which presents a problem for any finish other than paint. Is your selection better, or do you have a way to deal with the green in the finishing process?

[Michael Cody]

Jim, a lot of the poplar we see here in so. CA has a lot of green color/tint(I mean a lot, too much to just cut around without a lot of waste), which presents a problem for any finish other than paint. Is your selection better, or do you have a way to deal with the green in the finishing process?


Get your color wheel out and deal with it in the finish process. The opposite of green is red which of course is major component of a cherry finish. IE RED cancels green. You can cover and cancel the green streaks. You don't have to cut around them. It's not perfect because the green streaked area might appear darker since it's darker to begin with but you can play with that using tinted top coats or glazing. Ever wonder why all those Ethan Allen or whatever high end cherry is so dark?? It's amazing what you can hide colorwise -- even with some grain showing through. Get some scrap pieces and play, it actually sorta fun. Check out this link "Color Theory" (http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html). It explains is pretty good.

[Jim Becker]

Jim, a lot of the poplar we see here in so. CA has a lot of green color/tint(I mean a lot, too much to just cut around without a lot of waste), which presents a problem for any finish other than paint. Is your selection better, or do you have a way to deal with the green in the finishing process?

Terry, the green tint goes away with exposure to UV/Sunlight...and it turns a very nice brown...at least in my experience with the timber off my property and from local suppliers. Please note that I'm referring to Tulip Poplar/Yellow Poplar, not the aspens that are also called poplar. TP is actually a member of the magnolia family and the "tulip" reference is to the very large flowers that have a tulip shape in green/orange/white when it blooms in the spring "way up high".

I've successfully used water soluble dyes to characterize poplar as other close grain species, from pine when it's knotty to cherry/maple when it's clear. Would I substitute it for cherry? No...I like real cherry. But the price was right on this wood (http://sawsndust.com/a-milling.htm)... ;)