Is Poplar a Dumb Buy?

[Lee Schierer]

Agreed, except for staining. My experience with staining poplar is that it blotches. So I only use poplar for inner construction, like drawer carcasses, or for a paint application anywhere.

Lets be clear here, there are numerous poplar varieties. The wood being used that stains well is Yellow or Tulip poplar.

Poplar species include: Tulip, Cottonwoods, Aspens, Balsum Poplar,and numerous Asian and European varieties.

[Frank Drew]

I'm firmly in the so-what-if-it-dents camp -- this is a shelf in a workshop.

[John T Barker]

Poplar is ideal for what you are thinking of. It is strong and cheap. In this neck of the woods (Pa.) the masters of years back used polar as their secondary and tons of great pieces are polar on the inside, holding together fine. When I'm looking for shop furniture wood I go with ply or poplar or free wood.

Hint: When you have a poplar question ask the Pennsylvania guys.

[Larry Fox]

Hint: When you have a poplar question ask the Pennsylvania guys.

+1 It is essentially an extremely large weed here - great for shade though. I have one in my front yard that is massive and I had 5-6 that were equally massive removed a few years ago because they were hanging over the house. Even after that my property is still lousy with them.

[Jim Becker]

I went to look at wood, and I saw that poplar was not too much more expensive than pine, so I bought a $20 board. Then I got home and looked it up. Apparently, it's softer than pine, and it is hard to see what the advantages are, apart from having fewer knots. It's pretty ugly.

It sounds like the "poplar" you got isn't the wood (Tulip Poplar) that is heavily used in the furniture industry...the poplar I use (milled off my property) and available in local home centers here, too, is certainly "harder" than pine. I think you got something else for that board... I've used thousands of board feet of poplar (tulip poplar) and have never had an issue with "softness"! It's not oak, but...

[John Broomall]

I think everyone has covered the virtues of poplar. It's great stuff with a lot of uses. As for whether or not you should be upset over the $20 purchase i think it comes down to the size of the board!

[Rich Engelhardt]

As for whether or not you should be upset over the $20 purchase i think it comes down to the size of the board!

+1 to that!
No mention of the size of the board was ever made.
Around my parts, I can buy poplar for as little as $1 a board foot. A $20 poplar board would be a good sized chunk of wood!

[Dale Murray]

I use poplar all the time, it is my go to wood for basic functional things such as the edging of my garage work bench and this drawer. It is easy to machine, holds a screw well, inexpensive, and does not look bad in my opinion.
GarageBench.jpg

Drawer.jpg

These drawer pulls and the edging are poplar.

sanderStand.jpg