Retirement 3.0

[Intheshop]

Very interesting about white,southern yellow (pine)and poplar.If,your information comes from the web,through a variety of portals,more than likely you've been conditioned to see these three,but there's others..... as somehow inferior.Mainly in furniture,but that's just where it got traction.

It's a little deeper than laying the blame solely on the web.I'd say technically late 19th century when most publishing was a NY thing.There was and somewhat still is a leaning twds marketing hdwds from the N.E. The issue is when you market,to selectively and with great precision remove certain aspects of history.The web just turbo charges it.

"Softwoods" are a case in point.When you really dig deep...... uuh,and this ain't gonna be on any google search,or any web portal,you're going to learn of their use in not only furniture,but all manor of wood engineering.Pitts special,symmetrical wing uses clear spruce/WP.But fine furniture,generally pre 1840'sh just wouldn't be the same without them.Poplar is especially neat..... I dare anybody to say something nice about poplar on any wood wackin forum.Technically not a softwood but it's the same effect.This is the conditioned or "canning" of marketing.

There are folks who know what to do with these woods in fine furniture,and fine home building.It's a rare day to see their words in print however.

 

[Bret4207]

Theres nothing wrong with a lot of woods not always thought of as "good". White Ash is a dead ringer for Red Oak in trim. Ash was a lot easier to get and the core was never punky until the various Ash borers hit our shores. Now it's easier to get the Oak. Poplar, "popple" up here, is great for a lot of things as long as it's covered, so is Elm. Both are "junk" woods. Some of it is regional, some is fact based. People here tend to think the only good fence post is Red Cedar. It's actually a terrible fence post compared to Black Locust or White Oak, but Locust and White Oak aren't found in vast stands of poor land. So we use the Cedar.

I have a neighbor that had a lot of popple sawed up. He's proven it will last as well as treated SYP in use as fence gates. Just has to be clear of ground contact. I never would have believed it, but his gates are the same that were here 20 years ago. You don't know what you don't know sometimes!

 

[Intheshop]

Bois D'arc = fencepost.If locust is good for 75 years,here....Osage is a buckfiddy.

My best,or certainly ranking? Bois D'arc story;About 20 years ago,we were all in on bow building.I was all about limb design,others were tearing up the self bow world pretty hard.It was one of "those guys" comes up to me and tells of a whole grove of Osage being bulldozed and they're waving tiki torches at it.Don't need too many details but,had to confirm that with a site visit.

The sense of scale was.... oh how you say?slackjaw!The money they were burning amounted to,a single 7' stave fetches 75$ a pop,sold like cordwood out of the back of pickups at archery shoots.Then,value added when the culls get stuck in the ground.Suffice it,my mental calculator,redlined.Just sayin.BW

 

[Cherokee]

Been retired over 8 years, highly recommend it. Do some yard and house upkeep, spend time at the range, relax, enjoy life. Just don't like getting older.

 

[Intheshop]

Cherokee,my first attempt was a bit self indulgent.Pretty pathetic really,only lasted a year.Rode sportbikes almost every day.Tires ultimately got me past it.Had been on fast two wheelers for a very longtime prior to that so,wasn't some mid life thing.

At 60,still enjoy riding.... all crunched up,head to toe leathers,on bikes that are about as "unforgivable" as the rack at a chiropractor.Got to have a "core" like a middle linebacker.Legs like a running back and vision like an eagle.I know my dad at 80 could handle the physical side of it,haha.So,staying in shape is critical as I see it to enjoying life,even more so as we uhhh ain't as young as once? Old motorcycle sayin,"age and treachery trumps youth...." or some such.

Hope you're doing well,BW

 

[Ian]

Bodark lasts about 700 years in the ground around here, good stuff but hard to get. It will throw sparks off a chainsaw chain. I hate poplar, hate it. It smells like green apples and fuzzes to beat the band, you need really sharp tools to cut it cleanly and it better be really, really good and dry.

 

[Chris]

Just as a point of fact: the common name "popple" or even "poplar" describes several genus' and species. So you are talking about different woods with differing characteristics.

Bret is talking about quaking or bigtooth aspen, I suspect a few of you are talking about tulip poplar wood. Different critters, though all are soft and none are rot resistant.

Not trying to take away from an interesting conversation, just thought it worth clarifying.

 

[Intheshop]

Chris... in my mispent youth(not really) would spend Sunday afternoons literally,

Parking my then,early 70's sportbikes on the circle drive at G Washington mount Vernon.Yup,right "out front".What today is the most visited historic property in America was then,deserted.I'd take a bag lunch and a book.Sitting,rocking on the chairs on the porch.... nobody cared.To sit there with Tulip Poplars' exactly placed in the yard by... "the man",framed with the river below was probably the nicest front yard this hillbilly has EVER frequented.

Many years later,a moment of clarity?reading a first edition book on Charleston SC involvement in pushing American furniture design,the subject or species? of poplar comes into complete focus.BW

 

[Chris]

Chris... in my mispent youth(not really) would spend Sunday afternoons literally,

Parking my then,early 70's sportbikes on the circle drive at G Washington mount Vernon.Yup,right "out front".What today is the most visited historic property in America was then,deserted.I'd take a bag lunch and a book.Sitting,rocking on the chairs on the porch.... nobody cared.To sit there with Tulip Poplars' exactly placed in the yard by... "the man",framed with the river below was probably the nicest front yard this hillbilly has EVER frequented.

Many years later,a moment of clarity?reading a first edition book on Charleston SC involvement in pushing American furniture design,the subject or species? of poplar comes into complete focus.BW

How cool is that? Sit on the porch alone at Mt. Vernon.

Tulip poplar is certainly a handsome forest tree, almost no bole taper and all sawlogs to the first limb. Never had much commercial value though, but perhaps it could change. Look what happened to hickory prices.

 

[Intheshop]

Our local.... center of the poplar universe... high end sawmill is working almost overtime filling containers bound for ?

I'm getting 2nd shorts,surgically kilned for less than gas money?I show up with cash,they stop what they're doing,treat me like the most important customer to frequent... load a trailer,make sure everything is spot on perfect and take the wad like it's some sort of burden?Beats anything I've ever seen.

 

[blackthorn]

Where I grew up in southern Manitoba, the predominant trees were what most called "Black Poplar". Actually I have come to understand they were/are Quaking Aspen. My Dad used them for fence posts BUT we cut to length, sharpened them and then we pickled them in a copper sulfate (bluestone) solution for several weeks. Treated that way they would last for years and years. We cut and dried that same wood for firewood in the kitchen stove.

 

[Ian]

I didn't realize that Quaking Aspen was in the poplar family. Pretty sure the tulip variety is what I've worked, although I've burned plenty of the quaking variety in my SW Colorado fireplace.

 

[Chris]

I worked on a project for the Forest Service. They supplied hybrid aspen (popple) logs and we sawed them into lumber, there were quite a few different hybrids, some were crossed with cottonwood as I recall. Certain hybrids were suitable for different soil types and climactic conditions.

Some of the trees had growth rings near an inch, I believe. Anyway, when the board came off the logs many would curve like a banana from all the tension in the wood. Completely unsuitable for lumber, but there can be other uses. Growing up, popple was called "pancake wood" because it made a quick fire and left no coals in the wood cookstove.

 

[Chris]

I didn't realize that Quaking Aspen was in the poplar family. Pretty sure the tulip variety is what I've worked, although I've burned plenty of the quaking variety in my SW Colorado fireplace.

Tulip is Liriodendron tulipifera (sp?), going by memory. Quaking aspen is Populus tremuloides. So totally different genus.

 

[Uncle Grinch]

I’ll be retiring come January 1. Been working for 54 years on two different careers. Will be 70 January 30th... maybe it’s time. Funny thing is I’m being replaced by a couple of 20 hour part timers making $12.00 less per hour. Was offered the job or a severance package. No real choice, so I took the package. Would prefer to keep working. Oh well, maybe I’ll enjoy the time off.

 

[KeithB]

Hey Uncle Grinch, don't know what your money situation is but my wife really enjoys doing volunteer work. She works one afternoon at the local hospital gift shop, is a docent at the museum, and has worked for the literacy center. There are a lot of organizations that would welcome a mature and intelligent person's assistance.

 

[Intheshop]

Grinch,staying busy was always our motto.

Dad(deceased) saw it that way,made it right to 90.Mom did for him too but she wanted him for honey do's,haha.He was a brilliant builder.... what mom had planned for him was NOT going to happen iffin I had any say in it.She took his truck keys @80? No prob dad,I'll pick you up.Oh she'd get so bent I was "employing" him.Just cool to have around... even to his last days,he'd be pretty quiet,then bamb,come up with an over the top suggestion on a design or build that never ceased to amaze me.

That's how it goes,collecting "data" and experience over a 60+ year career.

 

[Bret4207]

Chris, nice to see that MIT (IIRC) education at work. We have what they call Tulip up here. Enormous trees, usually found in damp areas. Totally worthless for much of anything far as I can see. Tourist camp wood maybe? We had tent caterpillars real bad up here 15 -18 years back. They killed one Red Oak on my place that was pushing 4 foot BHD. I went and bought a 28" bar for the Husky 2100 thinking I'd have some 18-24" saw logs. Ha! By the time I got the chain made up that oak had toppled in a wind storm. Wasn't 10" of solid wood anywhere in the first 20 foot of the truck. But, we burned one limb for almost a month that winter! Never cut 24" limb wood before!