quaking aspen for utility?

[Peter Skellenger]

I am surrounded by Quaking Aspen or "Popple" as it is frequently referred to but has no relation to Poplar. I usually use maple (sugar, red, silver, norway, boxelder), elm, walnut (if I can find it)... typical Northern Michigan hardwoods either planted in town as shade trees or found in the woods. I was visiting a local sawmill recently to pick up some curly red maple boards and the owner gave me a curly aspen board to try. I made a few spoons out of the stuff and wondered why I am not turning it as a utility bowl wood. It seems to have the same characteristics of boxelder...it is a soft hardwood. I assume most people know what i mean about boxelder. Aspen can be very plain and white looking but so is sugar maple typically. This curly aspen was just that, curly and I see no reason not to use it for utility stuff. There is one guy out there making awesome lampshades out of aspen and I have seen people that dye the stuff while it is still standing. Pretty cool. Other than that, I don;t think I ever hear it mentioned as a good choice for utility bowls! Any feedback on why or why not?

 

[MichaelMouse]

Populus tremuloides is poplar. The wood sold as "poplar" back east is a magnolia, Liriodendron tulipfera. You have other true poplars like P balsamifera, P grandidentata as well as the occasional exotic, like P nigra (italica) the Lombardy Poplar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplar

It's attractive and easily turned, though fuzzy to the extreme when wet due to the interlocked grain which causes the curl or shimmer. Leave it thick and use as utility bowls or turn it thin and soak in oil to show its transparency. You mentioned lampshades, so you know about that aspect.

It's a tree that really loves to hold water, so spin it well after roughing and eject as much free water as possible to get it through the mildew point quickly. It's almost bulletproof in drying.

Of course,as you know, the Finns love it for sauna seats. No splinters, and it feels cool when all around it are warm to the butt.

 

[dkulze]

The only other thing to know is it's got a high silica content so will dull tools relatively quickly for it's hardness. Sharpen regularly. Nice utility turning wood. Burns really cool so not great firewood. I think that's where it loses in reputation.

Dietrich

 

[wdcarrier]

Aspen is Better Than Just Utility Stock

I'll take all the aspen I can get, especially large diameter logs. In my experience it turns well; moves very little; doesn't crack if you turn it green; and can be pretty awesome. The piece in the photo is 8 1/2 x 9 1/2, turned from a green log taken at the base of a wind-downed tree in N. Calif. The dark rim on the neck is bark. It must appeal to others as this one recently sold for $750.

Dean Carrier

 

[Peter Skellenger]

wow. 750 bucks! Nice. Aspen in this area is considered junk really. Well, the nice logs are used as saw logs and it is made into panelling, etc... but the majority of it goes to paper I think. I can send you semi-loads of aspen if you really want it! Literally. There is a 40 cord pile of BIG logs in my backyard right now that will just go to paper. One nice thing about aspen is its fast regeneration. However it sometimes takes over a good hardwood stand of maple, etc.. if you are not careful. Around here, you sometimes see an area that is cut too heavily that once held maple or cherry, birch, aspen, etc... and the aspen grows faster and shades out the slower maples and birches. The next thing you know you have a stand of aspen. I am going to start trying it out!

 

[dkulze]

I wonder if that fast growth would allow you to do some interesting things with the wood, like persistantly scarring the bark over several years to create figure (I.E. massur birch). I know about the dye injections so.....

 

[wdcarrier]

wow. 750 bucks! Nice. Aspen in this area is considered junk really. Well, the nice logs are used as saw logs and it is made into panelling, etc... but the majority of it goes to paper I think. I can send you semi-loads of aspen if you really want it! Literally. There is a 40 cord pile of BIG logs in my backyard right now that will just go to paper. One nice thing about aspen is its fast regeneration. However it sometimes takes over a good hardwood stand of maple, etc.. if you are not careful. Around here, you sometimes see an area that is cut too heavily that once held maple or cherry, birch, aspen, etc... and the aspen grows faster and shades out the slower maples and birches. The next thing you know you have a stand of aspen. I am going to start trying it out!

Chalk it up to global warming or whatever, we're losing aspen groves here in the western states, especially those in northern and eastern California. There's a lot of studies being conducted by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management on how best to preserve and enhance these groves as it's very high value wildlife habitat, especially in the dry Great Basin sagebrush habitats.

Here's a second piece I turned from the same tree. This one I Anchorsealed and left for a year and it cracked.

 

[dkulze]

Can I just throw in here that I'm pretty sure what was originally referred to as "Quaking Aspen" is not the same as the aspen groves you see in the midwest/west and far north.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. The one that I think was originally referred to that the guy uses for lamp shades can be 2' diameter. Not sure what relation that has to aspen like I see in CO and norther NE, where a grove is actually one plant with many trunks.

Dietrich

 

[MichaelMouse]

All the poplars will sprout from roots, so it's any of the whites on the left coast, I'd say. Out there, might not even be native. Poplar doesn't kill hardwoods, it fosters them in the succession to climax forest. They don't live long, relatively speaking, and they're not shade tolerant, so they shade themselves to death in thick sproutings, while the maple gets a good start in the shade.

If the birds are planting cherry you really want the poplars around to give it a run for the light. Keeps the timber straight. Same for other shade-tolerant varieties. No free lunch there, either. The long sky runners are more prone to uprooting. Two very nice 24' (9" diameter) to the first branch types came over last year over on the edge of the north meadow.

 

[dkulze]

There's actually a big todoo right now over all the aspen die off in the mid west and west. Folks are wondering why so many stands are dying but others say it's because we've suppressed forest fires so well that they are simply aging out. Areas with controlled burns and cuttings are under examination to see if this is the case.

The "Quaking aspen" out here more resembles a poplar and doesn't grow in stands. It's not smooth barked either.

Dietrich

 

[wdcarrier]

Can I just throw in here that I'm pretty sure what was originally referred to as "Quaking Aspen" is not the same as the aspen groves you see in the midwest/west and far north.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. The one that I think was originally referred to that the guy uses for lamp shades can be 2' diameter. Not sure what relation that has to aspen like I see in CO and norther NE, where a grove is actually one plant with many trunks.

Dietrich

According to the literature there's two species of aspen in North America. Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) has a wide range from AK to Central Mexico, in the SW and Rocky Mtn. states and over the Lake States, entire NE and across Canada. The bigtooth aspen (P. grandidentata) overlaps with quaking aspen in the NE and Great Lake states. I don't know if they hybridize or not but I would suspect they do.

 

[Jim Silva]

Can I just throw in here that I'm pretty sure what was originally referred to as "Quaking Aspen" is not the same as the aspen groves you see in the midwest/west and far north.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. The one that I think was originally referred to that the guy uses for lamp shades can be 2' diameter. Not sure what relation that has to aspen like I see in CO and norther NE, where a grove is actually one plant with many trunks.

Dietrich

The quaking aspen (popple) is what the lampshades are made of.
I've seen some very recently in person when I was in NH. Really nice work. The site I believe is http://www.woodshades.com/
I don't know what the relation is to the aspen you see where you are however.

 

[Ed Davidson]

Here's an 8" aspen bowl from a back-yard tree, cut about four years ago. The grey coloration is usualy found from near-the-ground trunk cuts.

 

[Ed Davidson]

Here's a link to a Colorado outfit who dyes aspen trees: http://aspencolor.com/default.aspx

 

[Peter Skellenger]

wasn't there small blurb about the aspen dyeing in an aaw journal kind of recently? Pretty cool... dyeing the tree standing! The bowl is nice. I was out at a big sawmill yesterday watching them rip through 12000 ft of aspen like it was butter. They do that 5 days a week! The stuff is all over here. Why I have not turned it until now, I do not know!

 

[Wyatt Holm]

I have turned quaking aspen, very fuzzy but it looks great when finished. I have never heard of dyeing it interesting idea.
thanks,
Wyatt

 

[Big Daug]

I was born and raised in Utah where we had lots of Aspen in the mountains and we used it for fire wood because my dad did not think it was worth doing anything else with. Now that I live in Colorado I turn as much as I can get my hands on because I find the Aspen here is full of many different colors that are very appealing to the eye. One of my wife’s friends called the other night and ask her if I would be interested in a green Aspen tree that her husband had just cut down. I got a pickup load of it and there was still some left for there fire place. I could not believe the color in it when I ruffed out some bowl over the weekend. I may try to talk her out of the remainder so that she does not burn it up.

 

[tomcatmartin]

I've turned aspen and generally find it boring. I'm sure it's the same stuff you're talking about up in the UP.
I changed my tune after turning some spalted popple- It's beautiful. They also produce burls from small to VERY large.
Tom

 

[Eric Geist]

Some reccomendations I have gotten with aspen are: 1. You tend to get the best coloration from harvesting the standing dead trees (after reading some of the posts, Im not so sure on that one though) and 2. When drying, it is best to let dry standing upright. I have no idea why that is- I just do it. I have found the best way to seal the ends is just a piece of duct tape. I have just started a few ornaments with the globe portion being aspen, and I really enjoy it

 

[MichaelMouse]

Aspen is not at all durable in contact with the ground. That's why standing dead offers you a chance to beat the full rotten stage. Willow, the head of the Salix family is a bit more durable, but cottonwood, another member, is perhaps worse.

They all turn fuzzy, but a nice thin poplar (aspen, popple) piece with the light shining through it is a great attention-getter.