Poplar as a wood handle

B

Brad Lilly

Moderator and Awards Boss
This year when I was cutting my firewood I found a bunch of poplar trees with burls on them. I started wondering if they would make handle material. Poplar out here is known as a soft hardwood. I find once it is dry poplar is very tough and light. The burls are small around a foot across. Here are a couple pictures for you guys to look at. Excuse the ice and snow



 
Brad,I think that would work fine and look good too if you dry it properly and have it stabilized.
I had some pine stabilized and used it on a kitchen knife and it worked really well.
From what I understand the softer woods will be harder after being stabilized but will still be softer than hard woods that have been stabilized.
 
I have used professionally stabilized cottonwood burl several times before with good rusults. I think it's pretty much the same thing isn't it?
 
Brad Lilly said:
I'm going to cut a few up and see how they turn out. Drying them is going to be tricky.
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Brad,
1" per year of thickness was what I was taught when drying green woods. I have it in a dry & dark place until the moisture meter reads 12% or less. Be patient.
 
Well I ripped some of my burl apart (After rebuilding my sawmill motor). The grain looks pretty good, hopefully it dose not fall apart when it drys. Here are a picture of the grain. Bear in mind these are as green as fresh grass and the colors will tone down once it drys.
 
Hey Brad!

Something you might consider doing it heating up some was/paraffin and coating each piece. I had a Box Elder that I removed from in front of the shop a couple of years ago....that had a huge burl at the base.....I worked my behind off to dig/cut out that burl. I pressure washed it down, then cut it into blocks.....I coated blocks until I ran outta wax, and wish I would have made the effort to get more wax..... many of the waxed pieces are still drying, but those that I neglected to wax, literally fell apart as they dried. Most outfits that do stabilizing recommend no more then 11% mositure, which means the blocks will need to dry for an extended period.....here in Montana, with our low humidity, that's generally a year or more.
 
As already said. It will work for a handle material. Once dry and stabilized Poplar is beautiful wood that shows alot of chotoance and movement. generally.

Like Ed and many others here. I learned the hard way that cutting the burls into blocks B4 the wood has dried. often results in catastrophic failure! Example. I was lucky to get 2 large red maple burls. I processed one into 2 X 2 blocks and left the other as a whole burl . After a week or less the the blocks started cracking and twisting. I could hear them popping and crackling! Was a sad day!! lol In the end. I was able to get about 2 pieces of usable wood from that entire burl. the rest self destructed. LESSON LEARNED!

Patience. pays.
 
Well I guess I need to get some wax out, thanks for the advice Randy and Ed. These were on the trees I cut for firewood so they don't represent much on an investment.

I plan on trying to dry them with a dehumidifier, the environment here just will not get dry enough.
 
Brad. Once they have some time to cure as far as your environment allows. You can further dry like your thinking. But I would not recommend trying this for a year or so. :) I have never tried it. Just making a educated guess here.

I was however talking to someone else who said they dried there wood in a microwave. LMAO! They said it worked well for there needs. I cant and dont recomend this because I have never tried it., Just wanted to share.
 
I was however talking to someone else who said they dried there wood in a microwave.
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Good grief. My wife dose not believe in divorce, murder she is ok with.

Here in NS we have ocean all around us and the humidity is high 90% of the time. I thought if I did do some drying it was going to be a dark unheated box and a dehumidifier. That way I'm being very gentle with the wood. I think I will live slab the rest of my burls and sit on them for a while. The stuff I have already cut into 2x2 I may try to dry a little faster. If all else fails I have some highly figured kindling for next winter.
 
Ditto the above. Large is better than small, but not huge. 1/2 Elmer's and water applied to the cut side works to slow drying and prevent cracking. Elevated with a good air flow and it will happen.
Decent looking wood too.


Dozier

Accuracy beats Speed
 
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