Poplar?

[Leatherneck]

Last Sunday, PBS's Woodsmith Shop featured a cabinet made of poplar. After a dark gel stain and poly finish, it looked like walnut.

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/episodes/season3/309/

Are there any drawbacks from using poplar? Is poplar more prone to warp/cracking over time?

I've seen Norm use poplar but he always used paint to finish.

Thanks all....and Merry Christmas!

[steve-norrell]

I have not had good luck trying to stain poplar with either gel-stain or an oil-based stain. It takes stain OK, but I have found that its grain structure makes it difficult to obtain an even grained, walnut-like appearance. I have had excellent luck when painting poplar.

I am sure there are others on this forum who have had better luck staining poplar and you should get some good tips. For me, I would probably try some other wood, such as cherry, for stained furniture.

I look forward to seeing what suggestions appear as I am thinking about a few projects for when I can get the cars out of the garage and recover my 'shop'.

Good luck, Steve

[Black wallnut]

Just one of Norm's poplar projects.

[Leatherneck]

You get what you pay for!

I have not had good luck trying to stain poplar with either gel-stain or an oil-based stain. It takes stain OK, but I have found that its grain structure makes it difficult to obtain an even grained, walnut-like appearance. I have had excellent luck when painting poplar.

I am sure there are others on this forum who have had better luck staining poplar and you should get some good tips. For me, I would probably try some other wood, such as cherry, for stained furniture.

I look forward to seeing what suggestions appear as I am thinking about a few projects for when I can get the cars out of the garage and recover my 'shop'.

Good luck, Steve

Thanks Steve!

I am always a skeptic when a lower-priced alternative is offered. Imitation crab meat is cheap because it's sub-par. Remember the Chevy Vega? The Yugo?

I'd hate to spend hours on a project and realize the finish looks bad....all because I didn't spend a few buck more on quality wood.

[ironhat]

I wish that I could get between the wall and the ends of the bunk beds that I built 21 years ago out of poplar. There are virtually no checks or splits in them after two kids and four grandkids have used them more for play than sleep. The problem that most people have with poplar is that it has some light colored, olive green bands running through it, varying in intensity. I say bands because it's more like the interface of sapwood and heartwood in any other species but I don't *think* that this is the cause with poplar. At any rate, I used MinWax, Dark Walnut stain on mine. When you run into one of these bands you will have a decision to make - do the deciding in advance. Lay on the stain and these will obviously be darker than the surrounding wood. Either wipe these off a little harder and sooner than the surrounding wood *or* just the opposite. One other choice - do neither. The latter was my choice because the greens were very mild such that I can hardly find them. You can overcome some of the impact that the bands will make on your project by descriminating cutting and their placement on the project.
HTH

[steve-norrell]

Thanks Steve!

I'd hate to spend hours on a project and realize the finish looks bad....all because I didn't spend a few buck more on quality wood.

Don't get me wrong, poplar is a great wood to work with. The staining may well be my problem, but if I knew I was going to stain it, I would use a different species. Also, you probably will get better results with gel stain than I did.

When I was "down in America," as we sometimes refer to going to the "lower 48", I picked up about a 1/4 pickup full of walnut, maple, and Baltic Birch. Saved a ton of money on shipping (the local retailers also pay shipping) and was able to get away from poplar for a reasonable price (at least by Alaska standards). Although I am almost ready for another trip south.

(Anyone else here drive 3,000 miles, one way, for some wood? Well, at least the scenery on the way is spectacular.)

Regards, Steve

[herb fellows]

Thanks Steve!

I am always a skeptic when a lower-priced alternative is offered. Imitation crab meat is cheap because it's sub-par. Remember the Chevy Vega? The Yugo?

I'd hate to spend hours on a project and realize the finish looks bad....all because I didn't spend a few buck more on quality wood.

Do you know how to double the value of a Yugo? Fill up the gas tank!

[eezlock]

poplar?

Poplar is a good stable wood for making furniture frames. It is structurally
solid and sound, not the best looking for a wood that needs a good
looking finish except paint. If you would look at a couch or other upholstered
furniture, most likely the frame would be poplar. The greenish-yellow color
of the wood to almost a sapwood coloring doesn't lend itself well to being
stained...hence the reason most people paint it.

[Uncle Cracker]

Agree with the structural usefulness of poplar, but I don't like staining it, because the uneven coloring (mostly the greenish areas) do not hide in the stain. If anything, staining has, for me, emphasized the color variations.

[catta12]

(Anyone else here drive 3,000 miles, one way, for some wood? Well, at least the scenery on the way is spectacular.)

You should get Mike Rowe and his film crew travel with you and get them to pay for gas.

I have done OK staining Poplar by using a pre-stain wood conditioner to even out the levels of color. It takes work to condition the darker bands more so that it takes less stain, but it is doable. My preference would be to either leave poplar natural or paint it and buy something else to stain.

[schloff]

I have had very good luck staining poplar, but I used a dark mahog stain, mostly. This hid any grain issues. I'm about to use it to trim my wife's new bathroom. Once again, dark stain.

It is very stable wood, and it's a dream to work with. It's very easy on tools as well.

[natausch]

Best way to avoid painting poplar is to tone the wood using dyes and shellac. You'll get "away" from the grain, but treating it like a cheaper walnut substitute and slathering on gel stains until you think it looks right ignores the green bands others have written about.

I'm a purist when it comes to cherry and walnut, but everything else is going to have a finishing routing involving color.

[atgcpaul]

Best way to avoid painting poplar is to tone the wood using dyes and shellac. You'll get "away" from the grain, but treating it like a cheaper walnut substitute and slathering on gel stains until you think it looks right ignores the green bands others have written about.

I'm a purist when it comes to cherry and walnut, but everything else is going to have a finishing routing involving color.

Yeah, I've done something similar. I use a weak, black, water based dye
followed by a dark walnut stain for poplar. It gives the same dark chocolate
colored finish you'd see in Pottery Barn furniture.

It looks very nice if that is the effect you want. You just barely see the grain but
it's never going to fool you into thinking it's walnut.

Paul

[JimD]

I use poplar for painted applications (like the 6 sets of plantation shutters I made of it) and for the insides of drawers sometimes. I can buy it cheaper than clear softwood. The hardness of poplar is also more similar to softwood than a hardwood like walnut.

When I was ordering my bimmer, the interior wood choices were poplar or walnut. The poplar was birdeye figure stained grey and the walnut is clear finished. The poplar probably bit my other colors better but I just couldn't buy poplar for this application.

I think poplar is a good inexpensive wood. I have no doubt you can stain it the color of ther woods but the grain would give it away if you try to imitate walnut (which is semi ring porus where poplar is closed grain).

Jim

[tseavoy]

Where I grew up in Upper Michigan, poplar was a very common tree and was considered pretty much a junk wood, not used for saw logs. It was used for beaver food and pulpwood. There was a company in NW Wisconsin that used it for yo-yos. It was used for other toys as well. Around here in NW Washington, alder is usually also considered a junk tree, used mostly for firewood. Now it seems that these soft hardwood varieties like alder, poplar, aspen, and linden (basswood) are finding their way into furniture products more and more. My shoji screen door is made of basswood. Window blind slats are often made of alder.
This is probably a good thing as they are generally fast growing trees and can have a sustainable harvest.

Tom on Marrowstone