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Working with hard maple & poplar. I have a challenge telling the difference.
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Location: Texas - Gods Country
You must have some nice poplar..
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Location: Wapakoneta, OH
(05-22-2018, 08:00 AM)Strokes77 Wrote: You must have some nice poplar..
Yeah, that would be my guess. they seem very different to me.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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Location: Piedmont North Carolina
(05-22-2018, 06:57 AM)Halfathumb Wrote: Working with hard maple & poplar. I have a challenge telling the difference.
Just for clarification, do you mean how your tools handle these two woods, e.g. routing or the way they take a variety of finishes - poplar can really be a pain to finish unless just painted, then fine - painted maple and poplar would certainly look similar to me (
), but for staining/clear finishes, the green heartwood of poplar is obviously different - Dave
Piedmont North Carolina
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Time for an eye check up?
Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.
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(05-22-2018, 06:57 AM)Halfathumb Wrote: Working with hard maple & poplar. I have a challenge telling the difference.
Tipoff - the
green stuff is ALWAYS popular.
Doug
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I have always found that putting poplar out into the sun for a couple of hours will get rid of the green and turn it to a color that is about like alder.
Actually, plain grained soft maple looks and feels a lot like poplar. The place I used to buy lumber from sold soft maple for less than poplar, so I bought some for secondary wood.
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What about the weight/density of it? Maybe you've been eating your Wheaties.
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Currently making a kitchen cart with poplar and maple. Easy to tell them apart. Actually love working with poplar, very easy with hand tools. The greener (color) the better as that green turned to a beautiful brown with age.
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So, are we talking about hard maple or soft maple? I don't know from soft maple, but I think I can differentiate hard maple from poplar.
