Aspen

[Jerry]

Has anyone sawed any Aspen . Was wondering if anyone knew what the wood looks like and if it would make good paneling. I have an abundance of it on the property we just acquired in Colorado and wanted to use some if it would be any good. We are going to build a cabin starting on it this coming spring. Will post some pictures if I can figure out how not too computer literate.

[Jeff]

I'd be willing to bet I've sawed more aspen than everyone on here combined. It was my bread and butter for 25 years. 20-30,000 feet a day, 5 or 6 days a week most of the time. I'd not want to compare it to what you have, because I simply have no clue on the quality of aspen out there, but here, its a worthy species for all sorts of things.  If you try the search out, you'll find a multitude of topics on it. 

[pasbuild]

I just T@G ed four thousand feet for a friend of mine, had quite a bit of curl in it, going to look nice on the ceiling.

[barbender]

Nice white color with brown and green tones around knots etc. It makes beautiful paneling. It does warp and cup a lot drying, it needs to be stacked and stickered out of the sun.

[Gary_C]

I'd be willing to bet I've sawed more aspen than everyone on here combined. It was my bread and butter for 25 years. 20-30,000 feet a day, 5 or 6 days a week most of the time.

You win, there's no contest or bet.  :D :D

There can be a lot of difference in quality of wood. It can depend on which species of Aspen you have. Typically here Bigtooth is the highest quality with Trembling next. If I had to guess, I'd suspect you have mostly Trembling Aspen and that can be pretty good quality too.

What little I've sawed got the fuzzies on the surface as it was sawn. Can't say I've planed any to see if that cleaned up when surfaced. It sure can have a very interesting grain as barbender has said.

It's also a wood that should be kept dry as it is not very rot resistant.

[MapleNut]

I have seen aspen 2x4s made into a  log siding, looked very nice. It does have to be sealed to keep from deteriorating.

[kevinlt15]

I'm glad to here that my mill isn't the only one that saws aspen fuzzy ;)

I have made siding with most of it I wondered if it was my mill or blade selection

[Jeff]

Not all aspen will saw fuzzy. It depends on the tree. In this area, most do not.

[Red Pill]

Not sawing, but I saw a video of a guy who turns lampshades out of aspen. They were gorgeous! He's start with a 200 pound section and end up with something translucent.

[qbilder]

The aspen we have here in the mountains of NM are probably very similar or exactly what you have in CO. I have cut a bit of it & love it. It's lightweight but seems pretty strong, on the soft side. What I like is the colors. It has a bright white base color with lots of caramel & brown, some yellows, purples, greens streaking here & there. I have noticed the bigger trees have the best colors. Small stuff is just solid white. Here in NM it only grows in the very high altitudes. I haven't seen it sub 6000ft. Very easy on blades, too. Does fuzz but nothing a planer doesn't easily fix. I make 4x4's out of it for table legs, and saw a little up for the local woodworkers. One guy uses it for picture frames & they are stunning. It would be beautiful paneling.   

[Magicman]

I would love to throw one of those big old Colorado Aspens up on my sawmill.  ;D

[barbender]

I think it is Quaking (Trembling) aspen out west. I would expect it to saw out with more figure than ours in the East, most stuff I've seen out there is more stunted height wise with more sound knots and bumps because of the dry weather. Up here when Aspen gets a knot fungus starts to grow on it and rots. You get figured wood we get rotten wood if that makes sense ???

[beenthere]

The aspen in CO is regarded as a better quality tree and lumber yield than the aspen in the central and eastern states.  Grows to a larger diameter too.
Probably reports somewhere to validate that too.

[Magicman]

I love them.


 
But of course, I was taking the picture of the leaves.   ;D

[Clark]

The aspen in CO is regarded as a better quality tree and lumber yield than the aspen in the central and eastern states.  Grows to a larger diameter too.
Probably reports somewhere to validate that too.

It's definitely a different beast out west than in the east.  Eastern US anything over 60 years is getting old and most of his companions have fallen over.  Out west it grows slower and lives longer.  I worked on the GMUG NF one summer and there was plenty of it over 100 years old with a good chunk over 150. 

I have my reservations that the quality is better.  Maybe if you catch it at the right time it could be.  Lots of what I saw had rot in the middle which was not evident from the outside.  Lots and lots of bigger slash left over from logging.

Clark

[beenthere]

Jerry
I too would suspect you will not be disappointed in the lumber from the aspen. I don't think the CO aspen has the troublesome wet spots that causes drying problems, near as much as the eastern either.
(and there is good wood that can be produced from eastern aspen as well - don't get me wrong )

Here is a yield report that talks about aspen. Not sure it will help, but relates some to the lake states aspen that has a shorter life span.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_rm/rm_rp193.pdf

[True North]

We have sawed aspen and put t & g in our house.  I reallly like the light color and variation that you can get  with knots, etc.  We are going to do our whole camp with it this summer.  I know a guy that has sawed a lot of it and he likes to let the logs sit for a couple of months at least before sawing and said that the lumber warps much less, especially in a kiln.  Our logs have always sat a while not out of purpose, but not getting to them right away. Does anyone else do that as well?

[Magicman]

I find that lumber sawn from dead SYP trees or from logs that are not "fresh" is much more stable.

[qbilder]

We have sawed aspen and put t & g in our house.  I reallly like the light color and variation that you can get  with knots, etc.  We are going to do our whole camp with it this summer.  I know a guy that has sawed a lot of it and he likes to let the logs sit for a couple of months at least before sawing and said that the lumber warps much less, especially in a kiln.  Our logs have always sat a while not out of purpose, but not getting to them right away. Does anyone else do that as well?

I don't let them sit before milling, but do mill a lot of naturally downed trees from blow overs. I never have issues with movement or cracking. I don't kiln dry it, either, though. Most of the time our relative humidity is in single digits, warm & breezy, so stacking it under an overhang dries it quick in the summer months. I live in the desert bottom with desert climate. Air drying here can be troublesome because it happens too fast.     

[SwampDonkey]

I'd say a 32" Large tooth aspen (trembling get just as big) would be a pretty big aspen by any standard or geographical location. :D The east-west thing don't fly as far as size. We do get a lot of canker in aspen here because we have a more humid climate to aid in spore germination. And yes conk usually enter an old rotten limb and grow a toadstool. ;) We've cut 30-40 cords/acre of aspen from many stands here. Most large aspen top out here around 75-90 feet. Side by side, mature aspen is always taller than hardwood.



I wouldn't think aspen is much different than cottonwood to tell you the truth. There are differences, but it's all poplar. ;D I do know that pulp mills here prefer aspen over the cottonwoods (includes balsam poplar).

We had to have special over size tickets for aspen over 28". ;) Our aspen can live close to 110 years. Further south from me, size and age declines as with balsam fir. The two counties here that are the potato belt have the best tree soil in NB. ;) You leave this area and go down around Fredericton and south and the woods become swampy.

[logloper]

I am currently on an aspen sale in Colorado. On the GMUG N forest. The quality is some of the best that I have logged. We cut the bottom log 37'6" long, and are still getting a 16' to 33' top log. We are going out to 6" tops. About every 5th tree has conks. The mill we are selling into is called Delta Timber, in Delta Co. They have a website showing the paneling they make. You can google them.We sawed alot of it on our bandsaw, and will start a run of it through out PH260 tomorrow. We seem to lose alot in the drying process. Mabe there are some tricks to it that someone could share. They ran Doug Fir through today for flooring, and lost very little. It just seems to dry better.

[SwampDonkey]

Doug Fir is dryer right off the stump like cedar. There is a lot of water weight in aspen.

[OneWithWood]

Aspen makes good dimension lumber - just keep it dry.  I built my barn out of big tooth aspen with tulip poplar siding.  It has been standing for eight years with no sign of deterioration.