Thread: What is POPLAR ?

Originally Posted by boxers

I need some advice. i watch The New Yankee Workshop and keep hearing a timber called POPLAR. Can anyone tell me if we know poplar by another name or what is something similar to it we have?

Hi Boxers,

I don't believe we have them here in Australia (corrections?), but go to France (especially) and you'll see Km after Km of them lining the roadsides, particularly northern / eastern France. Apparently planted on Napoleon B's orders.

Soft(ish) wood, varying grain, not much good for WW apart from simple things that won't cause upset it it all warps. So I've been told. Then again, I've been told many things, and not all of them quite true...

Cheers!

This is from the NSW govt site;
http://www.esc.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Shee...T%20Poplar.htm

Hope it helps.

POPLAR

ie. Used by lots of people.
Liked by lots of ppl.

ie. you are POPLAR with lots of ppl

Al

Theres a bit of poplar around in oz, mainly feral trees clogging creeks etc.
There were poplar plantation somewhere along the Murray that were used by Bryant & May to make matchsticks before the company was sold offshore.
The yanks use poplar coz its a cheap (for them) and easy to work timber.
If you are following USA plans just substitute it with radiata pine (if you're down south) or hoop pine(if you're a northener.

I dont think even the Americans are sure what it is

It's either Tulip Poplar - which is a type of magnolia, or one of the Populus species. (aspen / cottonwood)
Either way it's a cheap / light / softish wood that they use for painted stuff or as a secondary wood.

In NZ we'd probably use radiata pine instead, but then we use that for just about everything

So basically substitute any decent cheap wood you can get your hands on.

Cheers

Ian

I was going to suggest similar to pine .... seems tgo be what others think too.

I have quite a bit of poplar that came from imported furniture - timber beds mainly. Its not used much for quality furniture because it is largely featureless - and can sometimes be hard to finish, some bits are a bit furry even after being sanded. It is usually a secondary timber, or painted.

Pine would be a reasonable substitute, meranti would be even better as it doesnt have the knots, grain reversals etc that pine does.

Poplar has one feature that I love - it is so clean to work. I think many of the samples and demos of dovetails, m&t joints etc that one sees in magazines like Fine Woodworking are in poplar for this reason.

There are a few poplar plantations around Sydney. One, near the Colo River, was established by some American GI's on secondment. I dont know if they have ever been harvested. Otherwise it is quite a common tree. Never seen the timber for sale here.

Arron

Thanks guys for all the info. What a treasure trove of information.

Thanks guys for all the info. What a treasure trove of information.

Except Al.

I guess yer never too old to learn.
I thought this was poplar.

There was a small town on the old Hume Highway in NSW. I can vividly remember refuelling at Albury then heading Nth to Sydney one came down a left handed curve on a hill and then did an almost 90º right turn into a Poplar lined piece of road on a flat. You were hit with a 35mph speed limit sign, as you turned into the flat.

There was a garage somewhere in the middle on the left and I think a hotel as well. After crossing the flat one veered left and up out of the flat.

Could it have been Jugiong?

This was in the seventies and reminded me of southern France that I had seen in pictures, then in real life in the eighties.

Mick.

The poplar they're talking about is a secondary wood that has been used for hundreds of years in fine furniture construction. It is a very stable soft wood that varies in color from white to dark green. If you want to make something in NA that won't move much if at all and will be painted or is an interior wood then you use poplar. Oh ya and it's very cheap. I've used in many times.

Originally Posted by outback

I guess yer never too old to learn.
I thought this was poplar.

Since have a look around the gold coast recently I'd say that her bathing suit doesn't fit very well - it's 5 sizes too large

What is Poplar
Depends where you are , at a nudest colony its the guy who can carry two cups of coffee and six donuts
or the girl who can eat the sixth donut
Otherwise thin types op pine genus grown at road borders in N.S.W. , ofter called shaking poplars But I feel these are nothing like the poplar wood from overseas.





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