Poplar is sweet, but for some reason not very popular and it gets treated as a utility wood too often. The wood is light weight and can have so much character when it has the characteristic rainbow or tulip wood attributes. The wood is not very hard when it has these characteristics but it looks unlike any other wood species. Finished with boiled linseed oil it has a variance between brown/black up to very light yellow with green attributes as well. It does not smell good when machining it but that doesn’t subtract from the amazing outcome.
Poplar is not listed on the CITES appendices or the IUCN threated species list. Give it a chance and you won’t ever look at this wood the same, it is a shame to convert it into pallets or backing boards.
Pezui 