Finishing Poplar

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I don't remember which forum had a question about finishing Popler, so I'm posting this at all three.

Tonight we had General Finish in to talk finishing. When it comes to Poplar, according to General, the best way to go is Water Based stain.

They said and demonstrated that using water based, you can get a smooth, even color. The piece that was finished was a cabinet door where the panel was two pieces; one very light and the other one deep green. No special sanding, etc. was done.

You could not tell the difference between the two sides.

I don't know about others , but they sold me.

They said that water based is NOT for OPEN GRAINED WOODS like OAK and Aspen.

Hope this helps,

Bruce

[John Hart]

That's pretty interesting Bruce. I've got a lot of Poplar and I've been very disappointed in the finish results. I'll have to give that a try.

Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Did they say "stain" or "dye". I'll agree with using water soluable dye...that's what I use exclusively, including on poplar...but I don't like anything with pigments floating around on poplar and many other woods I use. (I don't use oak, for example, which is just fine for a pigment-based stain)

[Larry Norton]

I don't know whether it will help or not, but I used General Finishes Environmentally Friendly Cherry on this Deacons Bench. I built the entire bench out of poplar.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Sorry this took so long. I misplaced the brochure on the finish used to finish the Poplar at our WW club meeting. Jim, it was general finishes "EF Water Based Wood Stain." As I said earlier, the finish was beautiful and covered the color differences completely.

Bruce

[Larry Norton]

Bruce, that's exactly what I used on the above bench.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Great Stuff ain't it!

Bruce