What wood do you use?

[Barron]

I think poplar deserves a little more love. The green color turns to a nice brown over time. It's not super hard, but unless you are making baseball bats, hardness can be over rated. with a little care in selecting boards you can create some nice projects. I used a poplar trimmed bench (plywood top) for years until I built my Roubo (thanks Marc) and it held up great.

[duckkisser]

bass wood is a great glue and stain holder its pretty decent when it comes to screws and nails but would not use it for furniture it has a better use for carving. with a sharp knife you can slice non stop from one end of the board to the other. there are no catches and it slices great. with sharp carving tools you can cut almost as easily across grain as with grain.

[jHop]

I have used both basswood and balsa for carving. (There's a reason instructors prefer students starting on this stuff.) While my carving abilities are not great, the wood makes the process quick and reliable. (It probably would both turn out better and go even faster if I was a better artist, and used the correct tools. A pocket Swiss Army Knife only goes so far in carving.)

I have three poplar boards I'm saving for a project. Normally, I'd make the inside of the drawer out of them, but these three have a distinct grain pattern I'd like to highlight. (Now I just need to save up for plywood. Ahhh, the joys of car repairs... and shopping for a car once the mechanic say's "that's it! I quit!")

[JohnDi]

I've used poplar for a table top and love the look. Most who post use it as a secondary wood, but I love the look of the contrast of the heartwood to sapwood. Looks like just what it is, a "slice" of a tree. I'm still new so maybe I'm naive.

I've used it as panels in a cedar chest built from heart pine as well.

[Eric.]

Poplar is great for test cuts.

[TRBaker]

I've used so much poplar and bass wood in production cabinets that I have the same sentiment for it that most people have for construction grade lumber. However, it's made me a lot of money and will continue to do so. On personal stuff, though, give me something else to play with.

[sethhoover]

I have used poplar a few times, for small projects. My mother-in-law had her cabinets made out of poplar, so when ever I make something for her kitchen, (trivet, coasters, small "cheese board", etc) I always use poplar.

The green color turns to a medium brown after a couple year. I have never had issue with much tear out or anything from it.

[stahlee]

Count me in for using poplar for painted projects.

chris