Poplar

[wombatie]

Have any of you ever used Poplar ply?  If you have what did it cut like?

Marg

[julief]

I use poplar hard wood all the time and it is the easiest wood (next to pine) to cut.  I have never seen poplar ply. 

[Jim Finn]

I find that poplar machines well but is not a good wood to stain. It takes paint very well though.  I use the green parts for leaves in intarsia work. The white part works well for my inlay projects.

[Billy in Va]

There is a new named ply at the big box stores here.  It is labeled Blond Wood.  the color of the wood is very light and it could be poplar but Ido not know.   So far all of the blonds I know are accounted for .

[stipes]

Marg, at the Lowes here they have solid poplar sheets you can buy at a pretty good price. For the staining part, I'm kinda confused what Jim was sayin about that, and please Jim not tryin to say anything bad on your part, but just wondering what issues with stains you have with this type of wood.

[BilltheDiver]

Poplar can present difficulties staining as different areas of the board will absorb the stain unevenly and produce a blotchy affect.  The color can also run quite a bit different in areas.  Some of the blotching can be overcome by using gel stains, or by using a thinned down coat of shellac or other product as a wood conditioner prior to the stain application.  Personally I have made several large pieces from poplar and with good staining they have been well accepted.

[wombatie]

Thanks guys.  I went to a ply company yesterday to see what he had in stock and he showed me the poplar ply and its 2mm and its very cheap.  It looked great but the price put me off a bit because it was a larger sheet and it was only $36.  Now don't get me wrong I like cheap but cheap ply always make me question whether there will be a lot of breakage and different parts of the ply fall out especially in portraits.  My husband told me that I don't want short grain but he wasn't with me so I have no idea whether poplar is short grain or what, and the guy there was no help.

Marg