Is Poplar Wood Popular

Merle Rice · #1 06-24-2007, 06:26 PM

High Guys; I am making 2 Walking Sticks for my sister in California for her to give as Xmas gifts. I think I have enough time. LOL. I didn't know what kind of wood to get, so I tried my local Home Center. I decided on Poplar wood. I got 2 Pcs. My project is Shawn Cipas Patern in WCI mag. Fall 2oo5. I have it pretty much roughed out and am impressed the way cuts. I haven't got into the detailing yet but would like to hear anything negetive about the wood if their is anything. I don't know how it stains ,finishes, but will try a scrap piece before I finish the Sticks. So is Poplar Wood , Popular?
Merle

susieq · #2 06-24-2007, 07:10 PM

Hi Merle,
I have used poplar that was given to me and it carves nicely, or at least what I had carved nicely. I would use it again. Let me put it this way, if poplar was plentiful around here, I would use it as much as basswood. Unfortunately, not many decent carving woods are naturally plentiful here.

Luckily, I have enough wood on hand that if I never bought wood again, I still wouldn't run out.......But I will.....buy more wood.....we just can't help ourselves....
susieq

James Ablett · #3 06-24-2007, 07:12 PM

I bought a 3inch thick / 13inch wide / 16 foot long from a lumber yard and have carver several faces ou of it and I like it. It is not as soft a bass or butternut but it does hold detail.

Hi_Ho_Sliver · #4 06-24-2007, 07:15 PM

poplar is one of those woods you can finish to about whatever you want...a neighbor builds cabinets and uses a lot of poplar and usually finishes it to look like oak.....it looks great...

Merle Rice · #5 06-24-2007, 08:47 PM

Sounds like it is the wood that I will be going to in the future. Finishes well and good at details. Suzieq, do you live were Bass wood is plentyfull? Here in Maryland and Pennsylvania it isnt plentyfull. Poplar seems to be at my small local home center. The pieces I got were free, because they were damaged on the edges, which I cut off. I don't think it is very expensive, but will find out the next time I need wood. Thanks for your input Guys and Girls.
Merle

mark yundt · #6 06-24-2007, 09:29 PM

Don't know where in Pa you are looking ,but I could fill a tractor trailer at just one stop,,Just found a new place with 6" thick stock,,up to 20 inches wide,,16 ft long,,,really nice stuff.Cheap too!

AlArchie · #7 06-24-2007, 10:32 PM

Mark, I have a question about "poplar". Around here Aspen is known as POPPLE or POPLAR. Is that the same stuff you have out there, or is that the tulip poplar from the eastern region, or one of the other poplars.? My reference shows all the cottonwoods, aspens, tackamahacks, and the willows in the willow family (salicaceae), and coloquial names for just about any of those are "poplar".

I like our big tooth aspen for carving even more than I do basswood. It's a bit harder, but not much, and carves and holds detail well without quite the amount of fuzzing that basswood tends to do. But I've quit calling it poplar, just so folks know what it really is.

Al

susieq · #8 06-24-2007, 10:48 PM

Hi Merle,
No, basswood is not naturally availible in Florida. Tupelo is a swamp grower and some does grow in the panhandle of Florida but nothing else good for carving, grows here. I do have a huge stock of good basswood though. I have lucked out at yard sales a couple of times. A carver had either quit the hobby or passed on and their family was selling tools and wood. Also, I have friends in both Ill and Maine who have given me basswood at one time or another. (I avoid Southern basswood like the plague after having bought a bunch of it, hauled it home from N. Carolina and then discoverd how miserable it is, I burned it in our wood stove during the winter.)

I also have a lot of mahogany on hand, some black walnut, some tupelo and a couple of pieces of cherry......also some butternut.... too much wood to ever use but as I said, I will probably buy more. You can never have too much wood can you?
susieq

mark yundt · #9 06-25-2007, 07:27 AM

Everything I've used has been the Tulip poplar.Carves fairly decently,,has a peculiar density and give to it,,tends to be a bit splintery,,but given time and technique carves reasonably well.Not a first choice but you can get through it.

AlArchie · #10 06-25-2007, 07:56 AM

Thanks, Mark. I couldn't find anything on the Tulip Poplar around here but have heard a lot about it. After poking around in the books for a bit I found them under the MAGNOLIA family.....not with the other "poplars" of the willow family. Kinda makes one wonder how and where all these different trees wind up with the same connotation.

From the maps it looks like these trees are indigenous to the eastern third of the coutry, but strangely enough only work their way about a quarter of the way up the lower penninsula of Michigan and are absent altogether in the UP,Wisconsin and all but the southern tip of Illinois. No wonder I'm not familiar with it!

Al