IS poplar good wood for Chainsaw Carving

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I was wondering if poplar is a good wood for carving ? I know that it is a soft wood also, and I know that is decays fast,how ever I am a beginner in chainsaw carving and I'm carving bears so I was wondering how poplar would stand up to the test of time. I will be staining and putting a protective coating on top.
Thanks for you help

[AlArchie]

"Poplar" is a pretty generic term that seems to cover a lot of trees in the willow family. Most that I've crossed paths with (mostly big tooth and quaking aspen) are a mite harder than basswood, but still fairly easy to carve. They are straight grained and stable. But you are right, these types of trees, along with birch are very suceptible to decay, and probably wouldn't hold up well if left out in the elements. Staining and treating heavilly with a product like Thompsons Water Seal would be my suggestion. This would not physically seal the wood and allow for expansion and contraction while still "beading" water off the surface.
You should re-apply this stuff several times to begin with, allowing it to soak in heavilly and dry thoroughly between applications.
Even then, you'll need to re-treat every year.

Al

[twoclones]

The poplar we have around here cracks badly and in our desert environment it cracks even more so. I wouldn't use it even for practice wood.

[Photo]

Thank you for your information It was because I can get hold of poplar and now I find out I can get some red pine so I will post the same question for it thanks

[AlArchie]

I'm not a chainsaw carver (yet) but have a few friends who do that and I have also looked at numerous chaisaw carvings from many different carvers all around our area.

One thing I have noticed is that ALL of the carvings have splits somewhere in the carving. I have also carved several large pieces from whole logs which I have sealed and seasoned for over 10 years. That should have stabilized them, right? WRONG!!!

As soon as I started carving, and opened the wood to the air again, WHACK!, cracks, splits, checks, whatever you wanted to call them started showing up.

Hey, wait, the dog is demanding to go out for his morning walk....I'll finish my train of thought when I get back.

OK, dog's business taken care of...

Now, the reason I bring up all this checking is directly related to why I recommended the Thompson's Water Seal..or it's equivalenmt. There are quite a few far better surface treatments than this stuff, but all of them that I've looked into are surface protectorants, and do nothing to seal up the cell structure inside those cracks and checks. And unless they are sealed, moisture, fungal spores, bugs etc can get into the wood through these areas. The water seal stuff can be flowed into the cracks and will seal them as efectively as it works on the outside. It also allows the wood to breath (let water VAPOR pass). This type sealer prevents liquid water from entering, but will allow water vapor to pass, so the wood adapts to ambient humidity..

Pine is far more resistant to decay than poplar, but should still be sealed against water. And if your piece has stabilized with no cracking, go with one of the heavy duty exterior finishes.

Al

[twoclones]

Originally Posted by AlArchie

One thing I have noticed is that ALL of the carvings have splits somewhere in the carving.

There are a couple of approaches to dealing with checking... One is to beat the wood to it by cutting a deep kerf down the back and hopefully relieve the stresses which will later check the log. Another is to mark the log with a shallow kerf, for clocking purposes, then remove a thin slice from the end. This slice will dry quickly and crack, supposedly, in the same location where the log will eventually crack. Now one can position the future crack in the back of the carving.

In the long run, it's most effective to start with a more stable wood. The slower it grows, the slower it cracks.


Butch

[AlArchie]

Two good tips, Butch! Thanks, I'll keep them in mind.

Al

[Scottland]

I carve poplar to make marionettes and it works great. It doesn't splinter like pine and I even prefer it over bass because the extra hardness holds small details and joints better. The sapwood is almost white so it's a great base for stains and paints. Puppets are going to be better cared-for than other carvings, but I have seen some beautiful large outdoor carvings in poplar. Also, it's cheap and widely available!

[Claude]

Here's another thought for you about preventing checking/splits: http://owic.oregonstate.edu/pubs/peg.pdf

Claude

[twoclones]

When you carve marionettes, are you using kiln dried lumber and gluing it together to make your piece before carving? I'm sure that would work well.