: George: I work with poplar on a regular basis at my job and find it
: interesting because of the wide range of color. What we get ranges from
: pink to brown to yellow to green but is mostly creamy white. A co-worker
: tried to tell me you could get these colors by leaving the piece out in
: the weather. My experience and intuition make me doubt this. Have you any
: knowledge of this? I'm thinking that a very striking boat could result if
: a guy could come up with a lot of one of the rarer colors. Thanks, Tom

Everything I've worked off my place hase been creamy. I'll see some brown graining near branches, but that's about all. I think the color is a result of the minerals in the soil that the tree takes up as it grows. Any poplar I've let weather has turned gray quickley. In fact if I want to throw up a building without the oversite of the town I'll leave the wood out a bit. When the inspector see it, he thinks its always been there! This is wrong and not to be encouraged, of course.

Poplar has a bad reputaion for rot. But I've found it's no worse than pine. But you can't let it sit on the ground or in the bole with the bark left on or it won't last. Of course neither will ash which has a good reputation for rot resistance. While it doesn't produce a great deal of heat I burn it in the spring and fall when ash and maple burn to hot for comfort. Split small it makes a great fire starter.

Once it is spoilt the would takes on a very interesting "grain" pattern as the fungus' tendrils get into it and produce patterns of discoloration, Some people like to turn bowls from the spoilt wood due to this patterning. Perhaps that's what your coworker is thinking of. I have seen the pinks in this discoloration. A spoilt wood stripper with matched strips would be something!