Chiff and Fipple Forums

I got some lovely tulip wood in to make a nice new batch of bellows
https://www.facebook.com/banba.ireland/ ... 772&type=1

What you have there is poplar, commonly called tulip poplar, tulip wood is more yellow and pink and quite an expensive wood.
Poplar is usually used as a secondary wood in cabinet making and often painted.

Twenty years ago I was gifted a failed police truncheon made from Brazilian 'tulipwood'. It was cracked, but I was able to successfully turn a chanter from it by designing the outer profile around the crack. A true rosewood, it is a lovely turning wood with a remarkable peppery aroma when turned. My piece was a lovely light rose color that turned progressively darker red over time. It comes from one small section of Brazil, and I believe it is closely controlled under the CITES treaties.

Bob

Colin29 I can assure you that this IS highly figured Tulipwood (my wood supplier knows his stuff) it was very expensive. I have Poplar wood here to and there are huge differences in it.

I'm a joiner by trade and I know my wood.
True tulip wood isn't green, what you have there is green and looks exactly the same as poplar I use on a daily basis but if your supplier says it's tulip then that's what it must be.

Yep I'll trust his word over anyone's. I work with wood too

Looks like Tulip Poplar to me. I have dozens of board feet just like it in my wood stash. Green with dark mineral staining is pretty diagnostic.

Quote from Wikipedia:

The soft, fine-grained wood of tulip trees is known as "poplar" (short for "yellow poplar") in the U.S., but marketed abroad as "American tulipwood" or by other names..... While the heartwood is usually a pale green, it can take on streaks of red, purple, or even black; depending on the extractives content (i.e. the soil conditions where the tree was grown, etc.).

Tulip Poplar:




Tulipwood:






Rob

Rob's photos show the difference. Common names are often wrongly applied, even by many suppliers. The red and yellow timber in the photo is what I know as tulip-wood. The boards shown with green in them is wrongly called "tulip-wood" by some. It is a species of poplar, sometimes called tulip poplar. The true tulip-wood is a Dalbergia species. Ask your supplier for the Latin binomial for the wood you have. The Dalbergias are true rosewoods. Your supplier might be knowledgeable, but he is using the common name wrongly here. Stick with the Latin names to be sure. Just because your cat has had her kittens in the oven, it doesn't make them biscuits.

Here's Mitsy's latest litter


RORY

Awwwwwwww
I give up. Some people with a lot of time to spare nitpicking. Whatever you want to call it, its fine timber and will make fine bellows (most of which are sold already)

You know, people do actually come here to learn something. You call it nitpicking; I call it putting accurate information out there.

The bellows do look nice, true.


Rob

Hear, Hear Ted & Rob! Ok, so I'm using the 'hear hear' a bit, but man...there are just those times when someone's got to do it!

I have worked with both tulipwood and tulip poplar; what you have there is the latter. Perfectly suitable for bellows boards, but not tulipwood. There's a big difference between these timbers.

If it was very expensive then your supplier is taking advantage of you. This wood is available in the US at any big box home improvement center for less than US$ 5.00/board foot.

Does anyone but the supplier agree with you that this is tulipwood?

This wood is available in the US at any big box home improvement center for less than US$ 5.00/board foot.

Bought some a couple years ago locally for $0.50 / board foot - rough cut and green

No comment on what the OP's wood is - I don't see the original pics, maybe because I don't care to log into Facebook??

Tulip poplar being a native timber in the states reflects the price there, over this side of the water,by the time you add on shipping and import duty the price goes right up.
I find it annoying when I find something I want, really cheap on ebay, only to find by the time shipping and duty is added its not worth it.

RORY