Reply by Dave G

Poplar works like typical hardwood. The mistakes and efforts I make in poplar are the same I make in cherry and maple and beech. Poplar is very very much like soft maple. Oak is different from all those and gave me some new learning when I first started with it.

Unfortunately the box stores charge as much for poplar as I pay for cherry at a hardwood yard.

-- Dave, New England - “We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.” ― Tobias Wolff