> Anyone ever use poplar (Aspen) for a stripper? Being very light weight,
> with long straight clear planks available and cheap it seems like it might
> have some potential. The reasons I know of that poplar is not used as
> dimensional lumber are that it has very little strength and decays very
> rapidly. For a stripper sealed forever (hopefully) decay should not be a
> problem. Strength should not be a problem since it’s only being used as a
> core for the fiberglass. Poplar also has very little coloration and
> contrast and may make an ugly boat.

> Ecologically speaking, we are going to run out of usable northern white
> cedar, it’s a once in a lifetime tree. Being slow growing and in the
> presence of white-tailed deer it is none renewable. Poplar on the other
> hand is a family of trees that will last forever (at least as far as we’re
> concerned).

> Sorry if this topic has already been discussed, I haven’t had very much
> time to keep up on the Internet stuff lately.

> Thanks,

> Kevin Morlock

Can't be any good, it's too readily available, ;-)) Just kidding, if it is and it's cheaper then cedar, that would be great. I picked up some western cedar Friday, paid $1.38/ft(Canadian) for 1x4 select, white cedar on the other hand can be gotten around here for 540 cents a board foot and you can pick throught the pile to select your own( which you have to, to get good boards). Mine you, that's rough lumber and requires a planer so that cedar price may not be very good if you have to buy a planer to use it. However,, poplar is catching on out here in the east, so the price is actaully higher for it then for western cedar.

Greg