[knotscott]

Cottonwood is excellent for planting upwind and pissing off your neighbors every May. Other than that, I really have little use for it.

 

[Grandpa]

Only the male trees give off the white cotton in the spring. I was in the shop a bit this afternoon. I picked up a stir stick I got to stir paint. Looks like some of it could be. Others looked like doug fir. What about the old yard stick they gave away and sell these days. Look like cotton wood??

 

[gfadvm]

William just posted a workbench made from cottonwood. It has been the #1 project all day today and is pretty impressive. And I just cut up most of a stack for stickers!

 

[FirehouseWoodworking]

Good discussion and information! Thanks to all and keep the info coming!

Cheers!

 

[kdc68]

I have no personal experience using it, but I seen this fairly resent project ….a workbench made on cottonwood

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/99988

Edit: I seen post #62…gfadvm beat me to it

 

[brm]

Ive been milling cottonwood for a short while now and when I get ready to build I'll post some pictures.

 

[Vigilantewoodworker]

About 12 years ago I had some experience with it. My boss would travel around Montana for work and found an old standing dead cottonwood tree. He chopped it down and then he had me build some chairs out of it. From what I remember it moved around a lot after being cut and was very stringy to work with. The cottonwood was also pretty easy to carve but pretty gummy when sanding. It takes stain beautifully and even though it's pretty soft, it holds up well.

 

[shawnmasterson]

What my sawyer has told me, is that it is similar to aspen. He said it has a tendency to go wonky, and the bugs like it. When he drys it, once it's low enough he moves it inside to keep the bugs out. I have used it for about 40% of the trim in my house. I did paint it. it machines very much like poplar.

 

[49er]

When I had about 5000 feet of hardwood sawed I had one big cottonwood. We cut it into strips to go between the boards. That is the only use I have for it. I would not cut one down and pay 14 cents to have it sawed. I have two very big cottonwoods I was looking at the other day. I think I am going to girdle them. If I cut them they may damage decent trees when they fall.