Tulip wood

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Le dullard de la commune
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I'm sure if I searched I could find an answer, but I'm damn idle!

If I buy Tulip wood in the UK what exactly am I getting??
 
Yes thanks

I'd already seen that but;

Wiki info often needs a large pinch of salt so I generally don't go there
AND it's USA centric

So.......... the stuff I buy in a UK timber yard is of N. American origin, or What??
 
If it's Liriodendron Tulipifera? - then it is American whitewood, tulipwood, canary wood, poplar etc etc.

They had plenty at Yandles at the weekend and looked like the American stuff to me?

Rod
 
Rod

Ta - I think the only way to avoid ambigiity is to quote the latin name.
Poplar (as we know it, Jim) it most certainly ain't.

This all started when I saw a reference (in a very upmarket furniture brochure) to "british sourced tulip wood" and the alarm bells started clanging.

But I believe the real thing (from USA) is good cheap stuff and an excellent alternative to top grade "pine" ????
 
RogerS":369ed034 said:
Tulipwood is popular with painted kitchen manufacturers as it takes paint well.

This is one reason I wanted to use it (besides being a cheapskate) as the client (SWMBO) has specified the paint colour but not much else at this stage.

Project: sideboard, oiled Oak (real English, not furrin rubbish) top but the rest in matt pale blue.
 
Rod has given the best answer - if the question was mainly about the cheap wood referred to in USA literature.

Liriodendron tulipifera is what the American mags refer to as tulip wood a lot of the time - it is indeed probably the cheapest hardwood available in the UK.
As something of an experiment, I made a bunch of furniture from it and stained the whole lot to look like a passable walnut. It actually colours quite nicely if left to its own devices for about 5-10 years.

It is rather soft but strong enough for a lot of things although it dings fairly easily.
 
Big drum finished with an amber shellac

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Table + detail of leg finished with wax. Leg a bit scuffed at the bottom.

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When aging the contrast between the greyish white and the dark green/purple tone out a bit, but you will always have a big difference between the colors.

When sanding the wood tends to fuzz, but planing with a sharp plane results in a really delightfull slick surface.
 
Harboro wrote:

>If it's Liriodendron Tulipifera? - then it is American whitewood, tulipwood, canary wood, poplar etc etc.<

It seems that the Americans usually shorten the description. However, my reference, Wood - GS Boulger - 1902, gives this as 'Tulip-Tree' wood.

He describes a 'Tulip-Wood' from Brazil, 'a rose-coloured beautifully striped wood, considerably used for inlaying and small turned work'. I've got a chunk that is dense and pretty hard to work.

Also a Tulip-Wood from Australia - 'The outer wood is light-coloured, very tough easily worked and the best wood in Australia for lithographer's scrapers and suggested for engraving. The inner wood is beautifully marked with black and yellow, close-grained, strong and much valued for cabinetwork'.

Jeff
 
Timbmet import and sell L.Tulipifera as Poplar (Tulipwood).

In the States it is often known as Yellow Poplar, although it isn't Poplar at all is only known as such as it grows straight and very tall.
 
I must admit I thought we where talking about the stuff that looks a bit like Pau Rosa. But in the workshop earlier I pulled out a turning blank with Tulip written on it and it looked like Ash with no grain.
 
London Plane's alternative name is Lace Wood - it doesn't have tulip shaped flowers which I suspect all 'Tulip Woods' do. On that basis all magnolias could be tulip trees' as well - but then Liriodendron is in the family Magnoliacea - so it is a magnolia, and not a poplar though mistakenly called such.

It is cheap light coloured hardwood, and used extensively in the last century (and before ?) for furniture carcassing. Any other 'Tulip Wood' is dark, highly figured and v. expensive.

Rob
 
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