Thursday 4 August 2011

Tulipwood platter

After all my experimenting last week I thought I'd just turn something a little more traditional this week. I brought a nice big plank of "tulipwood" (sounds so much nicer than poplar) as I know it's quite soft and would be good for me to practice on.
It's quite easy to turn although it does have a habit of tearing the grain if your tools aren't really sharp, the whole piece has a greenish tinge to it (my wife thought I'd added it) but I think its a good low cost wood to practice my skills on and make some quite nice pieces with in the process.
I finished the platter with a few coats of walnut oil but it will have a few more before I find it a new home.
You here so many people tell you poplar its good for nothing I'd love to hear what other people use it for as I think its quite an attractive wood.

3 comments:

  1. In early America, poplar was used for anything that contacted food or drinking water (bowls, mugs, canteens,wooden buckets, kitchen utensils, etc.) as it imparts no flavor.

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  2. Its a nice piece, We used to cut poplar into christmas tree blocks on the Estate I worked on 5000 every December .It nice to see it used to make something decent :)

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  3. Cheers guys,
    Gorges - it would be good for everyday use for food because as well as what you mentioned it's really light. I I've got quite a bit of this wood left so I'll be making it with food uses in mind.
    Brian - 5000 Christmas tree blocks does not sound like fun work! At least it kept you warm in December!

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