Poplar wood for a stripper?

garypete

LOVES Wooden Canoes
Has anyone tried building a stripper from poplar?

I'd like to try an entire canoe hull made from bigtooth aspen (populus grandidentata) strips. Aspen is a hardwood and heavier than cedar, but it's really cheap and available in long lengths here in northern Wisconsin.

I've used it to glue up into accent strips with cherry and it seems to sand about the same as cherry.

Gary
 
Gary,

How/where do you find long lengths of Aspen?

Back when I was looking for paneling, all I could find was 8' (ie, 100"), reportedly becaue everybody cut like that it for the paper/OSB mills.

But, my experience with it was that it warps and usually needed to be drilled (at the ends) to prevent spliting. And it couldn't be straightened like pine or cedar when installing it. Much harder to install (at least as paneling). I used it on the ceiling because it stays much lighter/whiter then either pine or cedar.

With that said, some boards were fairly light and easy to work, maybe if you could select some of the softer, clear, straight grain boards it would be fine.

Dan
 
Dan,
check out www.timbergreenforestry.com. Jim Birkemeier is just outside of Spring Green. He's got a great setup, his wood is inexpensive, and you can feel good about buying his lumber. no guilty conscience. plus he is a really cool guy.
sincerely,
Josh
 
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