Tullip Wood
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- This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by John-Paul Treen.
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3 August 2014 at 8:38 pm #60061
Last week I had the opportunity of visiting a small Bespoke furniture and interiors maker. He was using all the normal hardwoods for any polished finishes but for any units that were getting painted he used Tullip wood which he said was vey good for machining and was mainly free of knots and imperfections. He also said it was cheaper to buy than Pine.
My question if it is so good why is it not something that is stocked by the local UK timber merchants
Does any other members have any experience buying and using Tullip wood
My bet is the wood he was using is also known as Yellow Poplar. Yellow Poplar is an easy working, paint friendly wood that is often used as a secondary wood. Check your wood merchants for either Yellow Poplar or Tulip Poplar.
BTW, Poplar is much nicer to work than most pines and looks very good painted, with an oil finish it can turn very green at first but as it is exposed to light and air it will darken to a brown…still isn’t the best looking wood for finishing with oil.
ken
21 August 2014 at 3:03 pm #61499I boughtb some Tulipwood from Yandles several weeks ago andhave used in a few times when making bandsaw boxes. IT is a creamy coloured, clear wood with straight grain that is easily worked and polishes well. Itis referred to also as yellow poplar, tulip poplar. Cannor recall what I paid, but it seemed very reasonably priced. Will definately be getting some more. Most sawmills seem to stock it.
21 August 2014 at 3:04 pm #61500I bought some Tulipwood from Yandles several weeks ago and have used in a few times when making bandsaw boxes. It is a creamy coloured, clear wood with straight grain that is easily worked and polishes reasonably well. It is referred to also as yellow poplar, tulip poplar. Cannot recall what I paid, but it seemed very reasonably priced. Will definately be getting some more. Most sawmills seem to stock it.
21 August 2014 at 7:53 pm #61507That looks like a fantastic timber merchant, they have a video on youtube from a 2013 show they held , bit too far away for me
Thanks
9 September 2014 at 1:44 am #71333I’m a bit late here, but I feel I should reply. I bought a huge amount of poplar two years ago – just before discovering Paul – to built furniture for my new house. Why? Because it was dead cheap and I think poplar is under-appreciated.
I’m still working my way through it. Here’s what I think of it.
1. It’s used for carcasses because it’s cheap, but also because it’s stable. Really stable. It just doesn’t warp like other woods I’ve used.
2. It gets dinged easily, like it were a softwood, but it is strong.
3. http://www.wood-database.com/ states Poplar is ‘Very easy to work in almost all regards’. On the whole, that’s true, but it can feel characterless, almost like MDF. It plays nice almost every time. It behaves consistently and rarely splits, it feels a bit dead under my tools, as opposed to other woods I’ve used, hardwood or softwood. It does plane like an absolute dream, though.
4. Every kind of finish I’ve tried with it has functioned perfectly. Danish Oil makes it look a bit lurid and yellow, though. Pale shellac is lovely, and it stains and paints REALLY well.
5. As well as the usual whitish yellow, you can also get wild colour variation (google ‘rainbow poplar’). This varies from purple, to black to green. I have a couple of 6×1 lengths that I’ve been saving that are almost consistently black in colour, and a couple of character pieces that are really lovely. When the lumber arrived I was overjoyed.
Then there’s the light green ‘snotwood’. This is really why everyone paints Poplar. It’s a truly horrible colour that fades to a slightly darker brown than the rest of the wood over time, which is better but still doesn’t look nice.
As long as you select your stock well, you can get perfectly decent, homely furniture, but when all’s said and done, I will never buy Poplar again. It’s a great wood for machine woodworking, but it’s not that much cheaper than Oak, or a proper Pine, or any number of woods that are just a bit nicer to work with.
I need to go to bed now. I really didn’t mean to write this much!
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