This seems to be the busiest forum so maybe someone here can give me some clues on how to get dark poplar heart wood. Let me begin by confessing I am one cheap-sons-of-a-seadog. That's what got me working with poplar. But then I fell in love with the black, purple heart wood. Trying to find it has become a real pain in the butt. The 8 or 10 lumber yards I have scouted through may have one of two boards but they try to avoid the dark poplar. Since all of them consider poplar a paint grade wood it's the pale stuff they want to stock. Even the veneer producers charge a premium for the pale sap wood while discounting the mineral intruded dark stuff. The dark stuff has got to be somewhere. How would you look for it?