Cottonwood.

It doesn’t even make good fire wood as far as i know. I have always been told to avoid it. so I have.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I have been using popular here in Florida on some pieces it’ 1.95 a bd.ft. here.
Can be finished to look like Cherry.
Also takes paint very well. And is easy to mill, and sand.
Alot of woodworkers don’t like

I had a whole bunch of free cottonwood once. i made one project from it and burned the rest.
i actually had to add extra scrap wood to the fire to burn down the cottonwood.
so far as i can tell it is a weed and not much good for woodworking in board form.
maybe stick-makers or guys making rough/rustic furniture could put it to use.
who knows, maybe it’s fire-resistant properties is good for something.

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

I only know of three possible good uses for cottonwood. Carvers like it because with its soft and has smooth grain it is easy to cut and at times plywood mills use it as filler on cheap plywood. Third, it can be used to make paper. In Oregon they are raising a hybrid popular cottonwood cross that they can harvest in just 7 years for paper production. I have not heard of saw wood from cottonwood.

-- Les B, Oregon

Awesome. Thanks guys!

-- I like trees ...... as long as their by the board foot.

I’ve seen cottonwood used in Sierra Leone. It’s horrible stuff, makes balsa look like oak. We don’t have cottonwood trees here in the UK, so it was interesting for me to see them. Vicious things, aren’t they? There is a bit of footage at the end of this video:

Nobody could tell me how old that tree was, but the cottonwood tree was brought back to SL by freed slaves after emancipation, so it could be as much as 200 years old.
Cheers
Steve

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It’s $1 bft here. I have much experience with it. It dries easy (fast-flat). It does smell like cat urine though even dry and running it through the planer. I sell it for cabinet backs/drawer bottoms…secondary wood. I personally don’t have much use for it. It does make good stickers though for stacking your other hardwoods, that is what I do with most cottonwoods I get-make stickers.

On a side note if the bark is thick and chunky…there is more money in the bark sold to carvers than lumber.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

I don’t know what it’s worth, but I do know it has been used more and more around here when people want to cut the final cost of their custom stairs when they just want a solid wood that will be painted. It’s cheaper than tulip poplar.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

In south central (Wasilla) Alaska we really only have spruce, birch and cottonwood to chose from. A lot of cottonwood is used for paneling and is attractive in that application. I have seen some kitchen cabinets done in cottonwood and they looked really nice. How they are holding up to every day use I couldn’t say. I am planning on cutting some for lumber this spring. Probably will end up for drawer bottoms or other miscellaneous uses. I have thought about doing some cottonwood cabinets for the second bathroom/laundry room to replace the hideous photo finish junk that’s in there now. They don’t get used hard so it might hold up well.

Mart

Well it looks like ill be leaven this stuff alone. thanks guys!

-- I like trees ...... as long as their by the board foot.

Why not mill it up dry it and give it to the local cub Scout pack and get a possible tax deduction. It has to be good enough for a bird house or a boot jack or recipe holder.

Maybe a local boy Scout camp could put it to use in a woodcarving merit badge class.

I know it would take some time and energy to mill it up but you could be helping some boy become a lumberjock.

Possibly they would take it wet and dry it in the rafters of some camp buildings.

Thank you for considering this donation

-- "Not skilled enough to wipe jam on toast!"

Here in Ohio, it is cheaper than Poplar, somwhere around 2$ a BF. I have used it a few times as a secondary wood, drawers, drawer bottoms, ect. I like it for this because it “disapppears” better than Poplar. Poplar can be rather colorful, where-as Cottonwood is about as clean/clear/white as you could ask for.

I get it for around $1.00 and use it for paint grade molding.

We have lots of cottonwood trees here in Montana. There are lots of them down by the river, just a stone’s throw behind my house, and we have one in our backyard. (Thank goodness it is cottonless variety.)

Anyway, I know of a couple guys that make rustic furniture with it and my personal experience with it is from cutting firewood.

The wood moves a lot as dimensioned lumber (twisting) and it is real stringy when splitting. This is because it has an intertwined grain. It does not seem to have straight grain like oak, cherry, or black walnut.

It seems to be fitting for rustic furniture. I have stayed away from it because I am afraid for liability issues that someone would not like the way that it moves or it twists more than acceptable.

It is attractive when freshly cut and finished. Very bright white with accent streaks of brown. But it turns yellow within a few years, not from the finish, but just the wood.

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Have just had some milled up for lumber. Not a wood I would try to use for furniture, very open grain, but makes excellent lumber. It doesn’t split at the ends when nailed. Needs to good and dry before use due to it’s shrinkage. Grandpa loved the stuff and out local sawyers love it for lumber. Most of it ends up in pallets or secondary uses though.