Are poplar and beech suitable for rustic furniture? - Woodworking Talk

gfisher · 07-10-2009, 01:47 PM

I chose to work with white pine for log furniture for its small amount of shrinkage and movement, but am tired of trimming all the knots.

I'm thinking about using poplar or beech since they're plentiful here and grow straight with little taper and few knots. Does anybody know how about their movement/shrinkage in a d/h kiln (100-125 degrees)? Movement is not that big of an issue now since I'm building a "shelving" system in my kiln - the logs won't be stacked on each other. Also does anyone know how they hold up for cutting tenons and mortises? Thanks a lot. Hi Daren

**Daren** · 07-10-2009, 02:59 PM

Hi. Poplar and beech shrink alot tangentially drying .

Shrinkage directions in wood: L--Longitudinal; R=Radial; T=Tangential.

Here is a link to a chart, notice the high number on beech, 11.9%...not as high as some, but much higher than others. Poplar is similar but I don't have evidence to link to prove it handy, just trust me

. (where as pine like you mentioned is 6.1%) http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/shrink_table.htm

But you are not building wet so I don't see a problem. Throw the wood in the kiln, dry it and once you take it out work with what you have. Piece of cake right ?

I would say beech would hold a tenon quite well. It is rated at 1300 on the Janka hardness scale, slightly harder than red oak for example...Pine is 600-800. Poplar is less than 600. http://www.sizes.com/units/janka.htm

You have things to consider. Pine and poplar are softer, but dry easier. Beech may be a little harder to dry, but much stronger (IMO stronger is better) if you have an abundance what's the big deal if some of it moves in the kiln ?

**TexasTimbers** · 07-10-2009, 04:01 PM

They are very poplar for rustic furniture, but don't fare well for beech furniture.

I may have had too much sun today.

clarionflyer · 07-10-2009, 05:35 PM

I'm out of my woodworking element here...
But, I absolutely know, in the "Near North" Ontario, most of the rustic furniture I see is Birch. I'm sure it's for a reason... could be abundance

! But, I doubt they would do it unless it made nice furniture.

gfisher · 07-11-2009, 09:42 PM

Thanks for the replies. Daren, one thing I've been wondering - more tangential shrinkage means more cracking, right? I'm just concerned about shrinkage so I can get pretty close on the daimeter of the logs coming out. As far as movement, I was afraid of my entire stack crashing if there was much movement, considering the pain of stacking multi-diametered and tapered logs. My first load did fine, but that may have been dumb luck. Birch, I understand has a terrible dulling effect on cutters. I actually considered using river birch, but don't like the idea of constant sharpening and replacing cutters.