{"id":3588,"date":"2021-07-25T21:56:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T01:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?p=3588"},"modified":"2021-08-19T21:46:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T01:46:41","slug":"tulip-poplar-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/tulip-poplar-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tulip Poplar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This is one of my larger pieces in terms of depth although certainly not in terms of diameter. The “tulip” refers to the shape of the flowers on the tree. If the piece was heavily colored it most likely would have been sold as “rainbow” poplar. Regardless of the marketing terms poplar<\/a> is a relatively soft and common wood, most usually used for strictly utilitarian purposes as it isn’t really hard enough to withstand much hard usage.<\/p>\n Poplar really isn’t one of my favorite woods and this piece reminded me of why. First, the wood is relatively plain in appearance, especially compared to most of the exotic species readily available on the market. Second, the wood is soft and it simply doesn’t cut cleanly at all. It isn’t too bad on the grain edges but the cross grain areas are a chunky nightmare, which could also be because this piece is also spalted. I don’t recall if the spalt was always present or if it developed over the drying period. As is often true of spalted woods this didn’t sand evenly and if you feel carefully you can detect divots in several places where the wood was especially soft.<\/p>\n