Eric DeSilva
01-20-2008, 9:21 AM
My dad asked me to post a question here... While he's a long time woodworker, he not much of a forum visitor. Anyway, he has been itching for a long time to build a Japanese tansu--he meticulously measured one he saw in a Japanese museum (using fractions of a business card). The traditional material for tansu building is paulownia. From what I can tell, paulownia is a very fast growing, strong but lightweight wood. Only, neither he nor I can find any in the DC/MD area. Anyone have any idea of what a good (and more readily available) substitute species would be? I've heard of people using paulownia as a substitute for western red cedar, but I'm not sure that translates into going the other way.