aspen

[jcousins2]

was at the lumber yard yesterday and found a small unit of aspen - wonder if anyone has any experience with it?
given the price (3.50/bf) it's not too valuable - has the feel and heft pine - its a pale color with lots of gray/bluish spalting - quite spotted in a streaked pattern - like blued pine - the main wood is not as yellow.
i just got a 3' chunk to re-saw into veneers - hoping that the dark stains stay and can be used in some marquetry pieces.
thanks for any info
jerry

[KyleD]

My local Menrds carries it fairly cheap. I have used it when I wanted a white no grain accent wood to contrast with something else. It seems to be very soft- softer than pine.

[MichaelMouse]

was at the lumber yard yesterday and found a small unit of aspen - wonder if anyone has any experience with it?
given the price (3.50/bf) it's not too valuable - has the feel and heft pine - its a pale color with lots of gray/bluish spalting - quite spotted in a streaked pattern - like blued pine - the main wood is not as yellow.
i just got a 3' chunk to re-saw into veneers - hoping that the dark stains stay and can be used in some marquetry pieces.
thanks for any info
jerry

Aspens are real poplars, not that magnolia commonly referred to as poplar.  Most grow rapidly and are diffuse-porous, so there's not much difference between early and late wood. White or brown, though some, like balsam-poplar have fugly extensive streaked dark heartwood.  If the mill treats it like pine and gets it sawed before other hardwoods, it's pure white sapwood throughout.

Interlocked grain can make for some real thrilling effects when ripping, and the dust jams and heats rapidly in the kerf.  I rip before surfacing, to minimize loss from twists and burns.  Use the bandsaw, if you've got one.  Even your tablesaw splitter will be challenged with movement from released inner tension.  Once prepared, stays where it is. 

Finns love it for sauna seats.  No splinters and it feels cooler to the butt than any other species of wood available.

[Turner52]

I have used it off and on for the last 30 years. Built an entire kitcen cabinet redo for my daughter about 4 years ago. She wanted painted cabints and it worked out great.. Yes therw were some piecs that really went wacky after ripping to width. After leaving them do their thing they were very stable after that. Machines beautifully. With the color difference, staining would be hard to estimate. Might turn out stuning or you might want to paint right away to cover the way it looks.

[Bill Tindall]

was at the lumber yard yesterday and found a small unit of aspen - wonder if anyone has any experience with it?
given the price (3.50/bf) it's not too valuable - has the feel and heft pine - its a pale color with lots of gray/bluish spalting - quite spotted in a streaked pattern - like blued pine - the main wood is not as yellow.
i just got a 3' chunk to re-saw into veneers - hoping that the dark stains stay and can be used in some marquetry pieces.
thanks for any info
jerry

I started seeing it in wholesale quantities in the 90's.  I was led to believe it was coming out of northwest.  Grade was select and Btr probably because the logs are not large so the boards are more narrow.  While we never handled it, I saw it used for house cabinetry.  

To me it seems to have no advantage over poplar unless you live where Aspen is more available and poplar isn't.

[jcousins2]

thanks everyone for the information - here's some pics of the salting that caught my eye  - plan to re-saw it this coming week

   

   

jerry

[Bill Tindall]

thanks everyone for the information - here's some pics of the salting that caught my eye  - plan to re-saw it this coming week





jerry

That is "blue mold", a drying defect.  The lumber surface did not dry rapidly enough, mold got established and the mold metabolites stained the wood blue/black.  This lumber would be rejected by any company using aspen for a product.  Its only commercial value is pallet lumber and it should have been priced as pallet lumber. 

Commercial kilns often dip the lumber packs off the saw with fungicide to prevent this staining.

[TGW]

In Finland our native aspen is traditionally used for many things. Though never fr furniture. It is way too soft for that and also a bit hard on tool edges because of the silica content.

Traditional uses amongst others:
-Shingles for roofing or siding. Particularly the thick hewn shingles used on church roofs.
-Siding boards. Only suitable on buildings which are not going to be painted. Paint doesn't stick very well to it.
-Bridge decking. The decking boards near to the ground must be pine or spruce but the rest of the bridge can be decked in aspen.
-Hay rake handles
-Dugout boats
-Hollowed out boxes. A piece of log hollowed out to form a tube and a loose bottom fitted into a groove where it ledged itself as the tube dried.
-Skis
-Seats in saunas.
-Floor boards for outbuildings.

[kencombs]

The first time I heard of aspen as a building product, not just a tree name was probably early 70s. The first OSB offered for sale locally was a brand known as 'Aspenite'. Because it was made totally from aspen saplings, at least that was the story then. AFAIK, it is not offered for sale locally in any other form.

[TGW]

The first time I heard of aspen as a building product, not just a tree name was probably early 70s.  The first OSB offered for sale locally was a brand known as 'Aspenite'.  Because it was made totally from aspen saplings, at least that was the story then.  AFAIK, it is not offered for sale locally in any other form.

Neither can you buy aspen timber in Finland from the ordinary timber merchants but as this is a country of small landowners aspen timber is always available if you bother to fetch it from the woods. If there is a sawyer locally anything can be made.
Every woodworker should really have a few hectares of woodland and an old tractor. It removes lots and lots of limitations opening up a world of possibilities.