Is Popler or Aspen poor for furinture?

[LCHIEN]

... Interesting. So now I have a third wood to try - Ash. Either the local HD or Lowes sells it so should be able to get my hands on some easy enough. I didn't realize how hard it was. Weird that people don't use that more.

You're in Austin if I recall,
here in Houston the box stores only carry oak, poplar and cedar in hardwoods. The "local" varieties.

I doubt you'll find ash or aspen in your local Lowes or HD. More Northern woods. but maybe I'm wrong... let us know.

[gwyneth]

So now I have a third wood to try - Ash. Either the local HD or Lowes sells it so should be able to get my hands on some easy enough. I didn't realize how hard it was. Weird that people don't use that more.

A lot of the mass-produced Mission/Arts and Crafts furniture used ash--colored dark--as a ringer for white oak.

The advent of the metal baseball bat may mean fewer ash trees are being planted...and now the emerald ash borer is apparently a serious threat to US ash stocks.

[ironhat]

FWIW, Mack, I built a set of bunkbeds for my girls 20 years ago in the then popular 'crate furniture' syle. Even the side rails are poplar- 1.5" - lagged into the vertical members. There have been a lot of kids (now, grandkids) on those beds all at one time and that wood has no signs of stress cracks. I stained it MinWax Special Walnut an you can't even see the odd green parts. I vote 'Yes" for Poplar.

Later,
Chiz

[lcm1947]

Hey Loring. No it's Ash. The more I think about it the more I'm remembering it was at HD - I think. Anyway, it's been a while since seeing it but I do recall seeing it at one of them. I remember because I was impressed that they carried something different then the other store - whoever that was. Anyway I will check this weekend cause now that I know it's a good hard wood I will probably build my next project ( End Tables to match the coffee table I'm currently building ) out of it. Ironhat thanks for the confirmation that Poplar can hold up to abuse. I will probably use it on a project and it may be the end tables if the price on Ash is too high. I am cheap! Actually I will probably go to a finer wood eventually but these are my very first furniture type projects and don't want to sink a lot of money into something I may have to throw away, you know? Appreciate the tip on staining with a Walnut stain though.

[vaking]

You're in Austin if I recall,
here in Houston the box stores only carry oak, poplar and cedar in hardwoods. The "local" varieties.

I doubt you'll find ash or aspen in your local Lowes or HD. More Northern woods. but maybe I'm wrong... let us know.

Loring,
Sorry to disagree.
According to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar
and this:
http://www.am-wood.com/wood/softwood.html
Cedar is a softwood. It has needles and cones - like pine. Different story - I believe cedar to be pretty hard.

[BrazosJake]

I think a lot of folks would be shocked at the amount of high-end furniture that's actually made from poplar. It may not take stain, but takes dyes well. It's very easy to work, stable, and very consistent in appearance. Oh, yes, and inexpensive:-)

I've never seen a popple tree, but judging from the boards, they must look like obese telephone poles.

[Joe DeFazio]

As a piano technician, I see poplar used quite often in piano construction. Sometimes it is used as a substrate for cross-banded veneer (two layers of veneer running at right angles to each other). Sometimes it is used on the lower and less-visible parts of a piano and just dyed/stained to match the mahogany or walnut veneer that is used above.

A really good and artistic refinisher can fool you into thinking that poplar legs are ribbon-stripe mahogany! You could pay $100,000 for a concert grand (that's really what the better ones go for now ) and get a fair amount of poplar.

I wouldn't write it off; it's a good wood to work with, and even in 100 year-old pianos, I rarely see problems with poplar splitting or warping.

Joe

[dlminehart]

Interesting fact I read recently about southern yellow pine: it contains a lot of resin that solidifies or melts around 70 degrees F. If used for outer wall construction in houses, that state-change gives it a doubly-insulating feature, allowing it to slow down the passage of heat while not getting as hot itself (and thereby radiating heat) as would be expected of a pure solid or liquid. Similar to water boiling to steam at 212 degrees without overheating the steam (unless under pressure). Makes for very thermally efficient buildings.

[lcm1947]

Thanks Joe for that info. I do think I will be using Poplar in my projects. I may try a chest or something similar just to try it out. That's really interesting about Pine dlminehart. Weird but interesting. Who'd have ever thought.

[gwyneth]

Before air conditioning was common (or existed), southern construction used a variety of interesting techniques to keep interiors cooler, such as elaborate awnings, trough foundations, pre-electric swamp coolers. I still can't imagine 19th century summers in the Deep South with many layers of long clothes, though.

[lcm1947]

No down here all I want on in the summer is shorts and a t-shirt and that's too much when it reaches 110 degrees. Actually it's too much at 98 degrees.

[Brian G]

I'm here late, but it appears that there are few comments about aspen.

I've used it for drawer sides. It worked fine for me. I will say that it tended to fuzz a bit when cutting across the grain, as well as along a routed edge. I noticed also that chip-out seemed to be a problem when jointing an edge.

There was also a rather peculiar aroma. . . somewhat subtle wafts of what I can only describe as "fetid decomposition of organic matter like in a stagnant mud puddle". That may have been stock specific.

[lcm1947]

Hey Brian G better late then never, right? Well, since I first posted I bought myself one piece of Aspen just to check it out and wasn't impressed. This may have been just one piece and I am judging it wrong but it left me with a bad taste about it. I cut it up into several pieces as I was going to apply different sealers, stains etc on it to see what would be good to use on it. Anyway, when viewing the cut ends the wood wasn't solid. I've never seen anything like it but it sure didn't look like it would be much good for furniture. I may have to buy another piece just to see if this was just an usual piece or something. I'm sure there's a word to describe the texture but I can't come up with it.