The Lowly Cottonwood

Percy · February 19, 2019, 09:39:34 AM

Around here, the cottonwood grows large. The logs are about half of spruce price wise. I cut it mainly for barn floors and dunnage...lots of dunage......When I cut it, it is so heavy and the lumber has a greenish,greyish color to it. Ugly as a mud fence....

It was suggested to me by rjwoelk (over on the drying/processing forum, around halloween) to practice running my new planer molder on some cottonwood..... After looking through all our stock of odds n ends, my son Warren found a couple pieces of dryed 5/4 cottonwood. The color had changed drastically. We planed it and he is using it for shelfs... It is finished with some cheapo clear water based varithane... I am impressed with what this lowly species can deliver

LeeB · February 19, 2019, 09:50:24 AM

My limited experience with it is that quarter sawn planes pretty good but flat sawn fuzzes up real bad.

Bruno of NH · February 19, 2019, 11:40:32 AM

Looks good
I hear it can be stained and finished to match other woods.

starmac · February 19, 2019, 01:06:42 PM

Around here we do not have a lot of them big enough, but it is sought after for heavy lowboy flooring.

Do you have much trouble with it warping when drying? I have not cut any, but those that do, claim it needs to be fastened down green.

WLC · February 19, 2019, 01:17:50 PM

Local sawmill up here cuts it for paneling and trim. Nice looking lumber.

Percy · February 19, 2019, 11:26:27 PM

I've never done anything besides using cottonwood for utilitarian perposes. I am gonna sort out my cottonwood logs and cut and sticker the hummers for a year or so....cheap experiment...Ill use a bunch of ratchet straps and tighten them periodically while drying....see what happens...

donbj · February 20, 2019, 12:35:55 AM

I sawed a bunch up when I cleared my property. The trees grew in an enclosed canopy and the main trunks were straight as an arrow. Just had to saw them, some up to 30" dia. Most of the wood was clear. Wood near the base of the tree twisted up a bit as it dried(all stickered properly and air dried). Wood further up the tree dried very well with not nearly as much twisting.

It turned out beautifully. One guy finishing his house bought quite a bit of it and cut it into trim and finished his house inside with it. It's beautiful wood!

longtime lurker · February 20, 2019, 05:55:59 AM

Nothing wrong with that for a board!

Klicker · February 20, 2019, 06:08:57 AM

I milled 7.5 cords of it for a person making kitchen cabinets. He liked it for drawers sides and bottoms
Instead of pine.

moosehunter · February 21, 2019, 08:09:37 AM

How is it as an outside wood? Recently had someone ask me to saw up a 40 incher. They wanted to build picnic tables for a restaurant. I told them it may not be good lumber for outdoor picnic tables but I'll saw it if you want. I haven't heard back from them.
mh

Crossroads · February 21, 2019, 11:06:34 AM

We have quite a bit of cotton wood around here. I might have to use some for the interior of the house build

wisconsitom · February 21, 2019, 01:28:57 PM

Moosehunter, I'd think that with a coat of paint, it should hold up about as well as a pine picnic table board. Definitely not weather-fast without a treatment of some kind.

I always considered cottonwoods to be junk. I no longer think that way. Just their growth rate alone is impressive.....100 ft. tall...in 50 years or less. That's fast growth. Of course, they will die one and one half days after reaching this age or height! Not a long-lived item.

tom

offrink · February 21, 2019, 08:00:40 PM

They slab pretty! I've done a few big ones. They cut like a pine instead of a hard hardwood.

samandothers · February 21, 2019, 09:48:21 PM

I read the first paragraph of the first post indicating how bad cottonwood looked, I am not familiar with the wood. Then looked at the picture and thought to myself 'WHAAATT!?!' The pictures are nice! Then I read the rest of the post. Will be interesting to see how the experiment turns out.

wisconsitom · February 22, 2019, 08:31:03 AM

Just generally speaking, the genus Populus, of which cottonwood is a member, along with "popple" (aspens) etc....is far more usable than some folks might think. A great many products are sourced from trees from this group.

tom

PS....working on a hybrid aspen clone (Clones, actually) having genetics of bigtooth aspen and white poplar. Goals are:

An aspen clone of good stem form, pathogen resistance, growth rate.
An aspen that can be planted as a 14-inch forestry cutting-something not currently possible with most aspens.
Aspen wood with figured grain.
Aspens that are at least 75% native genes of the bigtooth aspen.
Hybrid vigor.

We're having fun! Thanks.

tom

doc henderson · February 22, 2019, 08:48:50 AM

used to make pallets and coffins. can last if not in the dirt and constantly wet. some like it for boards on heavy equipment trailers as mentioned.

mart · February 23, 2019, 09:33:09 PM

I cut a fair amount of it here in Southcentral Alaska. I just finished milling some of it into paneling for a customer's cabin. They did quite a bit of it in one section and liked it well enough to order more.

My experience has been good with it so far. It seems to dry flat and what I've cut doesn't seem to twist, cup or curl much. It needs to stay dry so unprotected exterior use is out of the question. It is pretty soft and easily dented when dry, so use it in applications where it's not going to get a lot of abuse. I did several of my shop cabinets in it and they have held up well so far.

I'm going to mill a bunch shortly to use as roof sheathing for my shed extension. I'm doing a 12'x32' covered extension on the end of my shed for lumber and equipment storage. I'll use ice shield and asphalt shingles over the sheathing and see how it holds up. I cut 6"x10"x16' beams for the plates of the extension and full 2"x10" planks for the ridge board. With a two foot overhang they should be well enough protected to last several decades.

It does make good fur forms for trappers. No pitch and and soft enough to get a push pin into without a hammer.

It's not the greatest firewood but I always buck up the tops and smaller stuff and burn it. It makes heat. Have to check the fire more frequently and it definitely is not an all night fire like birch.

I also use it quite a bit for secondary lumber in furniture. I use it some for drawer sides. The gentleman who takes my slabs did his whole kitchen in cottonwood cabinets. They look nice. He just did a polyurethane finish and they aged to a nice golden honey color.

I used to think it was junk but I have gotten to where I like it when used where it works best. We don't have a lot of options here so we have to make use of what's available.

GAB · February 24, 2019, 12:19:05 PM

Quote from: mart on February 23, 2019, 09:33:09 PM
I cut a fair amount of it here in Southcentral Alaska. I just finished milling some of it into paneling for a customer's cabin. They did quite a bit of it in one section and liked it well enough to order more.

I'd like to know how thick you saw for paneling and to what thickness it is planed to after drying.
Gerald

mart · February 24, 2019, 04:13:01 PM

Quote from: GAB on February 24, 2019, 12:19:05 PM
Quote from: mart on February 23, 2019, 09:33:09 PM
I cut a fair amount of it here in Southcentral Alaska. I just finished milling some of it into paneling for a customer's cabin. They did quite a bit of it in one section and liked it well enough to order more.
I'd like to know how thick you saw for paneling and to what thickness it is planed to after drying.
Gerald

Gerald,
I saw it 1 1/8" and let it air dry a year. I bring it inside my shop a couple of months prior to planing and milling. That usually is enough to get it down to 8-9%. I plane it to 3/4" and then use a straight edge jig to get a true edge on one side and then rip it to width on the table saw. I know, poor people got poor ways. I mill the T&G on a 3 hp router in my table saw extension. I don't have a shaper so the router has to do the work. It does a good job.

GAB · February 24, 2019, 04:23:01 PM

Quote from: mart on February 24, 2019, 04:13:01 PM
Quote from: GAB on February 24, 2019, 12:19:05 PM
Quote from: mart on February 23, 2019, 09:33:09 PM
I cut a fair amount of it here in Southcentral Alaska. I just finished milling some of it into paneling for a customer's cabin. They did quite a bit of it in one section and liked it well enough to order more.
I'd like to know how thick you saw for paneling and to what thickness it is planed to after drying.
Gerald
Gerald,
I saw it 1 1/8" and let it air dry a year. I bring it inside my shop a couple of months prior to planing and milling. That usually is enough to get it down to 8-9%. I plane it to 3/4" and then use a straight edge jig to get a true edge on one side and then rip it to width on the table saw. I know, poor people got poor ways. I mill the T&G on a 3 hp router in my table saw extension. I don't have a shaper so the router has to do the work. It does a good job.

Thanks for the reply.
Gerald

doc henderson · February 24, 2019, 04:56:32 PM

If it going over a substrate like sheetrock, you can cut it 1/4 inch and put up after milling. here is cedar at that dimension in my BILs wife's closet.

doc henderson · February 24, 2019, 05:28:37 PM

my wife runs 1/2 marathons and she wanted a rustic divider to our down stairs family room. She wanted to put her treadmill at the back. this was an old walnut log, ,milled 5/16th, made into 2 panels of four and suspended from the ceiling bu hooks, not heavy and can be removed to open up area.