Harvesting Poplar?

[mmattockx]

We had a fair sized black poplar come down on our property a few days ago. Since it is on the ground, I figured i would harvest a few staves off it and see what I can do with them eventually. To harvest and prep for storage is there anything to worry about on poplar? There is one main branch that is about 7-8" in diameter that should be good for what I want.

Can I just split it in 4, remove the bark and seal the ends? Or seal the back as well? I plan on storing the staves in a shed to keep them out of the weather and am in no real hurry to work on one, so they can sit until next summer anyway. The branch I plan to harvest was growing at maybe a 45 degree angle, should I mark the compression side and try to split a stave off with the back completely from the compression side?


Thanks,
Mark

[willie]

I have quite a bit of black cottonwood drying that I have salvaged for use as arrowstock.

It is my understanding that black poplar was commonly used for arrows with warbows by the English back when. I am not sure of the differences in mechanical properties between the varieties in the Americas and the European varieties, but the native cottonwoods here in North America often have a very light density. I will rip some up soon to see if the density to stiffness ratio will work out for arrows for lighter bows.

For a bow It might be a bit light, but one thing of note with the species here, is that the tension side of a leaning stem or branch is very fibrous. I have always thought it might be worth an experiment to utilize some tensionwood for a backing.

[mmattockx]

For a bow It might be a bit light, but one thing of note with the species here, is that the tension side of a leaning stem or branch is very fibrous. I have always thought it might be worth an experiment to utilize some tensionwood for a backing.

The wood is very light, I have used some of it for wood turning and it is pretty fluffy. i wouldn't even bother with it except for seeing the bow the Ryan Yoon made from poplar. I certainly wouldn't make an effort to harvest poplar, this just happens to be sitting right in front of me and would be firewood if I didn't bother taking a few staves from it. It might be firewood in the end, regardless. 

Ah, it is the tension wood for the back. Thanks for correcting that. Can I take that to mean I should use the compression side as a belly and make the bow backwards to convention from that stave?


Mark

[Pat B]

There have been a few poplar(Liriodendron tulipifera) bows built here by PA members. It's not necessarily a good bow wood but it makes very good arrows. I think you'd have to overbuild a poplar bow, lengthwise and width wise.

[willie]

Ah, it is the tension wood for the back. Thanks for correcting that. Can I take that to mean I should use the compression side as a belly and make the bow backwards to convention from that stave?

I was thinking of seeing what the fiberous tension side might do as a backing for something else in a lam bow. I doubt if cottonwood, or your black poplar, is much good on the belly side. I suppose the belly would need to be something not too dense... It would be an experiment for sure, just to see if the extremely fiberous (tension side) wood has any usable properties.

The poplar that Pat B mentions is a hardwood tree in the southern US. Tulip is the common name, and poplar is what the lumber is marketed as. Not a cottonwood at all. It is, as he mentions, also good for arrows.  There actually have been a few cottonwood bows posted also, but more as a novelty.