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Uses for poplar

Started by alinicoll, October 26, 2009, 02:26:36 PM

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SwampDonkey

Up your way Quebec, you would get balsam poplar P. balsamifera (resinous buds and balm smell) on the coast and both it and trembling P. tremuloides inland. They both occupy wetter ground, while largetooth likes it high and dry like northern hardwood. Two of the widest ranging aspens of Canada are balsam and trembling. You don't get largetooth out that far north and no Tulip Tree (yellow poplar). Largetooth doesn't form pure stands around here and it changes orange-red in the fall like maples.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

chevytaHOE5674

Up this way we have P. tremuloides on fairly well drained northern hardwood sites. Generally it is better quality than that found in the lower ground. P. balsamifera is almost 100% of the time on low, poorly drained sites, often growing with tamarack, black spruce, cedar, etc.

SwampDonkey

Yes, tremuloides will grow on hardwood cutovers here to, but I make a point of calling it a wet aspen because it's mostly on wet ground, especially when we are looking in northern Canada which is over most of it's native range. Large tooth we consider a hardwood when spacing with brush saws. It doesn't seem to be so full of cankers like trembling. We have been thinning 100 acres of trembling and the fir in with it is garbage, the moose have any small trembling broken off and killed. The ground is a poor site for most anything except cedar and spruce. The water is close to the surface. No sign of largetooth anywhere in this 100 acres.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

chevytaHOE5674

Interesting, down here our trembling is generally in good form and not many cankers. What little bigtooth we have is full of black cankers and the wood is usually punky and junk. Always interesting what species do well where.

SwampDonkey

Yeah, for the most part of the NB lowlands trembling dominates after a harvest. You can drive along the highway around Moncton and go north toward Miramichi and Bathurst and see mostly trembling aspen, sick looking stuff. We do get some good groves of trembling but only on high ground and then there is still a lot of dead tops, cankers and conks in the bole. Largetooth doesn't seem to take well to fire ground with shaly ground, it seems to get target cankers.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Quebecnewf

Now that we know the type the next question is is it good for anything ??

Quebecnewf

SPIKER

I wanted to ask about the POPPLE not sure of its regular name not Tulip Popular but the less worth while stuff, (I have hybrid popular and popple) I have found that it does not make a good burn for firing Syrup on, gives the sap an off taste. (ruined a batch last time I made some)   it does burn OK but steams a lot and gives off rank odor. if it is not completely dry.   would work well for starting fire as it does seem to fire up quick...   I have some in the 24~30" range straight with a few branches 30~40' logs easy.  though they seem to die off at this size...  have not had any milled but really like how my old boss did some tulip popular on a back woods bar, (clear 30"+ with flat saw board & baton boards in the 24" wide these were nailed up green & left to split which really added to character of the inside of the fully insulated cabin/lounge around woods bar...)

Mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

SwampDonkey

Some mills don't want the balsam and others will take mixed loads of trembling aspen and balsam. At times it's worth more than hardwood for pulpwood market. We have sold aspen veneer before, but it's a not much a bump in price, maybe $20 a cord difference for the extra bucking, sorting and as some would put it "just plain in my road on the yard" :D

Makes a quick fire or kindling, other than that it's not used much in this area. I've never seen anyone use it for a building, but apparently some folks do. We have spruce and fir, and it's what folks prefer. Spruce more so, they would rather not use fir either if they could help it.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

climbncut

I live in a house that was built in 1863, and a couple of the rooms have poplar floors(95% sure that's what they are) and they still look amazing. Even with some rooms having cherry and pine floors, the poplar are my favorite.  Not sure when the last time they were sanded, but some boards still have a dark purple look to them and seem to be in great shape.  I would def recommend using poplar for flooring or paneling. It has always seemed to be an "interior wood" to me. Can't wait to get a hold of a good log and see what I can do with it.
Tree Topping: "The most costly, money-wasting, tree mistreatment in the world"- Shigo

Magicman

I've cut Poplar to be used as siding outside and paneling inside.  The ceiling over me right now is 6" V-grove.  We used "Pickleing Stain" (a whitewash) which is the only treatment that it has had.

Here are a few pictures.  Probably would be better taken in the daytime with natural light instead of a flash.







Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

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shinnlinger

The latest Fine Homebuilding has an article where they stain poplar to look like Cherry.  Looked pretty easy to do. 

What the call Poplar around here is quite different from the polar I knew in ORegon.  THe stuff here is also used for interior paint grade trim and trailer decks as it drys so light.  I milled a nice stick into stickers yesterday and thought to myself I was wasting a good looking stick.....
Shinnlinger
Woodshop teacher, pasture raised chicken farmer
34 horse kubota L-2850, Turner Band Mill, '84 F-600,
living in self-built/milled timberframe home

SwampDonkey

Quote from: shinnlinger on November 16, 2009, 09:57:13 PM

What the call Poplar around here is quite different from the polar I knew in ORegon.

Black cottonwood mostly, a small population of quaking aspen east of the coastal range. Our balsam poplar back east is about the same stuff as the black cottonwood. Both have sticky buds and stink.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

Magicman, that ceiling is perfect!
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Ron R.

Tulip popular is a little soft but makes a nice staircase. Just finished sawing out a shop pattern and most of it is out of popular. My house is more than a hundred years old and most of the studs are popular and look as solid as if they were put in recently. Makes good wood for barn doors as they are lightweight. I am sure there are hundreds of uses for popular.                   Ron R.

Heywood

I had a large tulip poplar with double trunk come down after the wind blew a soft maple against it.  The root system is very shallow for so large a tree.  I'd worry if one was too close to the house. Big Tulip Poplar trees are a fond memory of mine as a kid.  On a hot summer day, I can recall walking into a very large stand of them, and it was like walking out of the heat, and into a cool autumn day.  (They built a four lane highway through that stand of trees, and the house my grandfather lived in.)
It definitely burns well if it is dry and you want a quick fire to start the heavier stuff.  (Even my wife can get a good fire going if I'm away.) Since I have a large supply from that downed tree, I consider myself fortunate.  We have electric baseboard heat, and I have the thermostat set for a half hour in the morning.  By that time I'm up, and have the wood stove going before the electric heat runs more than about fifteen minutes.  I like my own TP trees, and their blossoms that produce a really, really good honey that is very dark and delicious if not blended by the bees with wild cherry that blossoms about the same time.  I'd certainly go for tulip poplar honey over the generic clover they sell in markets and tout as somehow special.   
As long as I'm here, I do have a question but I don't think there's a good answer.  I cut downed trees from farm land to clear roads or fields.  Mostly soft maple or cherry but sometimes oak.  I don't even bother to carry some of the other varieties away, but about a month ago, I got a call from a friend who had a tree come down on a leased farm blocking the road.  I took two saws with newly sharpened chains and on the first cut, I knew I had something special.  This stuff was hard.  It had about half an inch of rot that replaced all the bark and the tree had been standing, apparently until the roots rotted out and a good wind blew it into the road.  The color of the cut was a medium to dark tan and since the tree was about sixty feet high and about thirty inches in diameter, I gave my saws a workout.  I'm still trying to split that stuff.  I know I'm up in years but I'm not that decrepid, and I use a fifteen pound maul.  When I get a section with a knot, I even have to use the saw on it to get it to some size that I can handle.  I would rate the stuff as, at least as tough to handle as hard (sugar) maple with which I have had some experience.  My neighbor thinks it's walnut, but I have never cut walnut so I can't say.  I cut a slab off to get a good look at the grain.  Is there any reference that can identify a wood when there is no bark, leaves, etc. to tell, or do I just take all the guesses and pick one.

BTW -  the tree wouldn't have made good lumber because it's riddled with tiny holes made by some sort of insect that can handle that hard wood better than me.

WDH

Take a close up picture of the end grain to show the growth ring structure and the color and post it.  I bet someone on here can ID it for you.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Heywood

I never uploaded to an album before, so I hope I did all the right things to upload to  >  Heywood's album.
What's left is a cross section about half way or higher up the tree.  Taken with a flash so I don't know how true the colors are, but I added the one with the chips from the saw, and same shavings from a planer to give a better idea of color.  Even then, the light from the flash seems to reflect from the shavings.  A common tree that is hard to split around here is Gum and I know it's not Gum.  Also Sycamore but it definitely isn't that.  We have about six species of oak right here on my property and the red oak is really easy to split compared to this stuff.  I tried to count the rings and they're pretty close together, but I can be pretty sure there's more than a hundred.  The rotten part doesn't show too well in the pics but at eye level it's about half an inch or more.  Wish I could have got sharper detail, but I'm not a photographer.

SPIKER

here is HEYWOODs pics





I think he missed his links

It could very well be Black Walnut, but my system is not responding well for some reason...

Mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

Gary_C

That looks like some variety of white oak. It is very hard when it dries like that, even to the point where sparks fly of the chain saw when you saw it. But it will not rot like that. I recently dug out the remains of a burr oak stump that was in a cow yard and covered with manure for perhaps 15 years and there was no sign of any rot.

It also kind of has the color of Butternut, but that is not very hard.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

BaldBob

A good ID would require a CLOSE UP of the end grain which clearly shows the rings, rays and pores.

Heywood

I know the close-up isn't the best, but it's the best I can get with that camera and the condition of the wood after using the chain saw on it.  I even had trouble finding the rings to count them when I'm six inches from them.  But I really appreciate the replys I got.  I'm leaning towards white oak even though it has the rot and the bark is missing.  (I have a white oak near my driveway but that's no help.) None of that oak odor that I really like, and unlike other oaks I've cut, hard to split.  I'm going to make a return trip to that little woodlot and check out the rest of the trees in it.  Seems to me that if it is white oak there should be quite a few smaller ones close by?  No telling how long it stood after it died but I think it was for a good long time.  The owner of that farm also died a few years ago and the farm was auctioned off and divided.  The owner was a gentleman who told me that he was still working in the woods at age 75, and I enjoyed some of his stories particularly the one about going down a grade with a load of logs and bad brakes.  I almost expect to see him leaning against a tree when I go over there.  If he is, I'll ask him what that tree was.  :-) If I get an answer, I'll get out of there in a hurry.

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