Use Cases for Aspen?

[NicholasP]

A few days ago I had a 40-50 foot Poplar come crashing down into my yard after a storm blew through. I had to completely dismantle this tree by hand but had been left with 28 feet of fairly wide usable logs.

This tree was identified to supposedly be either Populus grandidentata or Populus tremuloides.

I hear that trees in the Populus genus get used a lot for perfling in instruments, but could they be used for other things? I have way too much wood at the moment for my drying rack and I need space for the maple I’ll be dismantling in a week or so, so figuring out what I can process it into would be great.

[La Folia]

Be careful about wood too close to the house.  That provides an easy pathway for termites to enter, even if you have vinyl or metal siding.

[NicholasP]

38 minutes ago, La Folia said:

Be careful about wood too close to the house.  That provides an easy pathway for termites to enter, even if you have vinyl or metal siding.

That’s a very good point. I’ve left them there for a day so far as I’m cleaning up my drying rack so store the pieces. As soon as it’s done (likely tomorrow) I’ll be moving them in and the remainders I’ll just prop up for now inside the garage somewhere.

[Brad Dorsey]

2 hours ago, NicholasP said:

...could they be used for other things?...

A lot of the same type of poplar grows around our house.  I use it for blocks.

[NicholasP]

2 hours ago, Brad Dorsey said:

A lot of the same type of poplar grows around our house.  I use it for blocks.

That’s awesome. I guess I’ll look into an approximate “block blank” size I’ll cut out of the wood. If I recall correctly it needs to be quarter sawn, so I’ll quarter saw everything first letting it dry afterwards, and then chop into the right blank sizes

[FiddleDoug]

"so I’ll quarter saw everything first letting it dry afterwards,"

You don't need to quarter saw it. Just remove the bark, maybe split it in half, and then coat the ends with wax or paint to keep it from splitting/checking. After it's dry, in a couple of years, you can just slice off block length slices, and work out your block orientation on the slices.

[Brad Dorsey]

6 hours ago, NicholasP said:

…it needs to be quarter sawn…

Does quarter sawn, in this case, mean that the annular rings run parallel to the strings or perpendicular to them?  I don’t know, and I don’t think it matters.  I cut the logs perpendicular to their length to make circular slices around 50 millimeters thick for violin blocks.  Since violin ribs are about 30 millimeters high, 50 leaves plenty of trim allowance.  Then I split a slice into  chunks for blocks.  I don’t pay any attention to the orientation of the annular rings in my blocks.  Perhaps someone will say that I should.

[nathan slobodkin]

What do you mean by "fairly wide"? The fire wood sized chunks you show would be somewhat juvenile wood and I would be wary of using them for anything. On the other hand I have made several dozen cellos with one piece poplar backs and the bigleaf variety can be pretty good while the quaking (tremuloides) is not as good although I made some amd own none. Either one coud be used for blocks but would be heavier than willow and the Quaking might be a bit shaky as far as holding a neck.

[NicholasP]

3 hours ago, Brad Dorsey said:

Does quarter sawn, in this case, mean that the annular rings run parallel to the strings or perpendicular to them?  I don’t know, and I don’t think it matters.  I cut the logs perpendicular to their length to make circular slices around 50 millimeters thick for violin blocks.  Since violin ribs are about 30 millimeters high, 50 leaves plenty of trim allowance.  Then I split a slice into  chunks for blocks.  I don’t pay any attention to the orientation of the annular rings in my blocks.  Perhaps someone will say that I should.

I believe it's parallel. The main reason why I was thinking about quarter sawn is that I believe (Could 100% be mistaken, wouldn't be the first time) is that in Davide Sora's video, it seems like he's using quarter sawn and then cutting it how he needs. I like your method though, so I'll probably use it for 20% of the logs unless someone chimes in that maybe there's drawbacks to it.

 

3 hours ago, FiddleDoug said:

"so I’ll quarter saw everything first letting it dry afterwards,"

You don't need to quarter saw it. Just remove the bark, maybe split it in half, and then coat the ends with wax or paint to keep it from splitting/checking. After it's dry, in a couple of years, you can just slice off block length slices, and work out your block orientation on the slices.

Ah, I see. I'll go ahead and debark it later today and get my beeswax out to coat it.

 

2 hours ago, nathan slobodkin said:

What do you mean by "fairly wide"? The fire wood sized chunks you show would be somewhat juvenile wood and I would be wary of using them for anything. On the other hand I have made several dozen cellos with one piece poplar backs and the bigleaf variety can be pretty good while the quaking (tremuloides) is not as good although I made some amd own none. Either one coud be used for blocks but would be heavier than willow and the Quaking might be a bit shaky as far as holding a neck.

By fairly wide I more so meant that for stuff like blocks, purfling, etc. it's wide enough to get several dozens of pieces out of each one and with it's age coming in at about 25 years. I'm hoping it's the big leaf variety, but I'll try and identify it down to a single species later today. I do have a very very wide willow tree that fell down in one of my family member's property that I could use if it comes to that this wood I have is actually tremuloides.

[David Burgess]

5 hours ago, nathan slobodkin said:

On the other hand I have made several dozen cellos with one piece poplar backs and the bigleaf variety can be pretty good while the quaking (tremuloides) is not as good although I made some amd own none. Either one coud be used for blocks but would be heavier than willow and the Quaking might be a bit shaky as far as holding a neck.

If one uses uses "quaking" wood in the construction of an instrument, might that reduce the vibrato burden for the player?

[nathan slobodkin]

4 hours ago, NicholasP said:

I believe it's parallel. The main reason why I was thinking about quarter sawn is that I believe (Could 100% be mistaken, wouldn't be the first time) is that in Davide Sora's video, it seems like he's using quarter sawn and then cutting it how he needs. I like your method though, so I'll probably use it for 20% of the logs unless someone chimes in that maybe there's drawbacks to it.

 

Ah, I see. I'll go ahead and debark it later today and get my beeswax out to coat it.

 

By fairly wide I more so meant that for stuff like blocks, purfling, etc. it's wide enough to get several dozens of pieces out of each one and with it's age coming in at about 25 years. I'm hoping it's the big leaf variety, but I'll try and identify it down to a single species later today. I do have a very very wide willow tree that fell down in one of my family member's property that I could use if it comes to that this wood I have is actually tremuloides.

 

4 hours ago, NicholasP said:

I believe it's parallel. The main reason why I was thinking about quarter sawn is that I believe (Could 100% be mistaken, wouldn't be the first time) is that in Davide Sora's video, it seems like he's using quarter sawn and then cutting it how he needs. I like your method though, so I'll probably use it for 20% of the logs unless someone chimes in that maybe there's drawbacks to it.

 

Ah, I see. I'll go ahead and debark it later today and get my beeswax out to coat it.

 

By fairly wide I more so meant that for stuff like blocks, purfling, etc. it's wide enough to get several dozens of pieces out of each one and with it's age coming in at about 25 years. I'm hoping it's the big leaf variety, but I'll try and identify it down to a single species later today. I do have a very very wide willow tree that fell down in one of my family member's property that I could use if it comes to that this wood I have is actually tremuloides.

If you have clear straight willow big enough for viola backs I recommend grabbing as much as you can. Cut it a couple of inches longer than you will need then saw the rounds in half lengthwise and use anchor seal log sealer to seal the ends. Of coarse if you have access to a mill just saw it into blanks and seal the ends on them.