# Staining Poplar



## CraigMoore

I have always heard you can't stain poplar, so I have never tried. Well, my daughter ask me to make her six shelves for her boyfriends sons. I made them out of plywood & used poplar to cover the plywood edges cause she told me in the beginning they wanted them painted. Now she says they want them stained. I thought I read somewhere you can stain poplar but I dont remember where I read it. Any thoughts??


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## waho6o9

Sanding sealer first to prevent blotching. Test on scrap first. Good luck.


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## RibsBrisket4me

Sanding sealer or wood conditioner is key to limit blotching. You CAN stain it, but know the greenish grain turns brown with age and will get quite dark. Also, poplar seems to "raise the grain" quite easily, and I always had to use a fine sanding sponge between stain or poly coats.

I DO like working poplar though. It's a nice wood.


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## JoeLyddon

I stain Poplar all the time!

Works good for me!

I always use a rag and wipe it on… if one area gets darker than another, I merely wipe a little more in the lighter spots & it evens out… no biggy…

My favorite is Trans-Tints… work great!


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## tenontim

Use aniline dyes, it works better. Arti sold by Highland woodworking or W.D. Lockwood sold by Tools for working wood are the best. Water based dyes are the most color fast, but you will have to wet down the wood and sand a couple of times, to take care of the grain raising.


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## bench_dogg

+1 to what tenontim said.

Test it out on a piece of scrap first. Once you apply the water based dye it will look terrible until you top coat it, don't panic here.


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## AmandasHusband

On one of the Woodsmith Shop shows I remember them staining poplar w/ a dark gel stain and saying it looked like walnut. I thought it looked good. But not just like walnut like they said.

If you're not interested in aniline dyes, you could try Charles Neils blotch control stuff. I saw his video on it about a year ago. Looks like it's pretty good. The Wood Whisperer said something about it in a video or blog of his.

https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dcartstores.com/Charles-Neils-Pre-Color-Conditioner--Blotch-Control_p_47.html

Then, you can let me know how it works as I'm pretty sure I'm going to try it on this "rustic" pine table I just started yesterday for my 2nd favorite mother in law.


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## JoeLyddon

I'm glad I watched Chas. Neil's video… It clarified a lot!

Looks like he has finally developed a REAL solution to the Blotching problem once & for all!

I will have to get a can of that stuff and experience it for myself…

Thank you.


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## tenontim

Clear shellac works great for blotch control. Put it on with a brush or wipe it, let dry, then sand. Use the dye color of your choice.


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## ben10

I built bunk beds for my sons out of poplar. I had to stain it to match the store bought dressers…a very dark brown. I used Trans Tint dye stain and water. Worked a couple of coats into the wood, then put a coat of oil based stain on top. Finished it up with 3 coats of poly. It turned out perfect! There was some blotching but it disappeared when the poly went on.


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## JoeLyddon

*ben10: * I like to do the same thing… except, I like to go with shellac instead of the poly… a beautiful combination.


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## Howie

Look at my projects. Several of them are stained poplar. Use a blotch control and don't over sand(220 max)


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## JoeLyddon

You can make Poplar look like just about anything on the dark woods…


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## JoeLyddon

*
"It will get dark but it will never look like those woods."

*

Of course… you can't change the grain… BUT, from a short distance, one can make Poplar appear to be many of the dark woods… Somebody else said that a long time ago… I'm just repeating them… LOL

That is why Poplar is so popular! LOL


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## SnowyRiver

I have stained poplar without any problems. I always look for clear poplar though for the project. I dont use poplar that is green. In my gallery I have a dove tail jig stand that I made which is stained poplar.


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## jgreiner

I have used gel stain on poplar before and other than some blotching (I didn't use sealer beforehand because I didn't know what I was doing) it came out just fine.

This is the bench I made, all the "dark wood" is stained poplar

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/46958


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## 2bigfeet

I use ZAR stain. Its like a gel wiping stain. Works great. No pre-sealing or conditioning. I never have an issue with blotching. Minwax will blotch without fail.

Here is an all poplar cabinet. One coat of ZAR cherry followed with a coat of ZAR Early American, three coats satin poly. No blotching. Any variations in color shifts you see is the wood grain. Like some else said above, you can pretty much make poplar look like anything. Its used a lot in high end homes stained to look like mahogany. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference…


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## DamnYankee

I've stained so much poplar…
Actually I think I've dyed most of it…
Anyway, one of the things I like about poplar is if you are careful to not have streaks of green (pieces either all the green color or all the clear color) you can dye poplar to look like anything but oak. (Oak just has too distinctive a grain pattern).

I've made poplar look like maple, like walnut, like cherry…

I like dye..doesn't interfere with with glue, no wipe off, different colors…

I mix mine usually with alcohol, but you can use water too. Alcohol dries really fast.


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## JoeLyddon

DYankee
*
I've made poplar look like maple…

*

How did you do that?

Bleach it?

Dye it clear?


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## JoeLyddon

Jonathan… I guess I don't have THE eye… That looks great to me…


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## a1Jim

http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/1430


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## JoeLyddon

Hi Jim #6


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## glenwmr

After blotching up a poplar end table to the point where I just ended up painting it brown, I made a coat rack out of poplar and used Charles Neil Wood Conditioner and a general finishes brown dye. Turned out great! It is amazing to see the difference. I did learn, though, that the days needs to be wiped on, and then wiped all the way off. I didn't notice a couple of spots and the sat in very dark. Always learning, and I need better lighting in my garage. That's my next purchase.


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## BillWhite

Just be sure to use a dewaxed shellac as a prestain conditioner.
Bill


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## DS

I've used Poplar molding on a Cherry piece and it stained up beautifully. 
You can't even tell the difference. I've seen it used with Walnut as well.

If there entire piece were Poplar I'm sure you could tell, but a single profile in a stack camoflouges pretty well.
I've heard it called "Poor man's Cherry" before because it can be stained to look similar to Cherry.


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## DamnYankee

Joe - when I said that, I was thinking of a piece I made predominately with maple (stained) and rather than going back to where I purchase my hardwood - where I'd have to purchase more borad feet than I was needing - for a piece of maple to finish the project, I used a piece of poplar (trust me I was a bit edgy doing it) but once stained I couldn't tell the difference between it and the maple next to it. So yeah, it looked like the maple I had stained the same color.


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## Viking

I just learned about Charles Neil Wood Conditioner. Anyone know who sells it? I want to try it on a project.

Thanks


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## JoeLyddon

I think you could buy it* HERE...*


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## Viking

Thanks Joe. Didn't know if I could get it locally.

Appreciate your guidance.


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## wormil

Another vote for dye… save yourself the aggravation of conditioning and staining. I just mix the dye in a small spray bottle and spritz it on. Want it darker, spritz more on.


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