Hello all

This is aimed more at UK members, where would i be able to source some Poplar in the UK?
I want to have a got at making a scabbard myself and this seems to be the wood of choice. If anyone has any suggestions for vendors or for any other suitable woods.

thanks all

My supplier is local and doesn't post, but just google a good hardwood supplier on line and there will be choices, but buying it thin enough may be tricky. Best to find a good local specialist timber yard.

Tod

Bear in mind that poplar in the UK is the trade name for Tulipwood. I don't make scabbards so I'm not sure if that's important, but I make arrows and you'd be amazed at the number of professional, career fletchers and archery suppliers who don't have the faintest idea that they're selling an American imported timber as an indigenous wood!

In my experience, 99% of all UK timber yards selling poplar are actually seeing tulip (liriodendron tulipfera) and not the poplar mentioned in medieval literature which is Populus tremula, Populus nigra or Populus alba. The problem is that Tulipwood is known as yellow poplar in the States, which has become shortened to Poplar.

It might not make a jot of difference for a scabbard unless you're looking for "the real thing". If you want actual medieval poplar, you're best looking in Scandinavia where it's used for fence posts and sauna timbers or refining your search to aspen.

If you are going carve the wood core, Birch is period and really pleasurable to carve, decidedly more so than Poplar. I assume that Birch is easy to obtain there.

Hi everyone

Thanks for the responses they have been really helpful. I am off to find some wood now! Once I have found some and have made the scabbard I shall post it on here.

Very interesting to see all the woods that ahve been used historically as well. I though oak wouldnt have been all that suitable i have read that it can be corrosive? Something about it being high in tannin? I could be wrong and often am!


Thanks again

Oak would not be my first choice either, I think tannin is acidic, but I know people who have made oak scabbards and are happy with them: I think the lesson is that if you can't get thin slats of beechwood, most other woods which carve or steam well will work OK.

Beech is an interesting choice as it can be quite brittle, Oak I would avoid because of the tannin and it does certainly stain or rust iron.

Poplar is great because it is tough and stringy, birch is quite similar in that it is light and tough, but is not commercially available in the UK

Willow would be tough, so also good, as would ash, but hard to work down that thin.

Tod

[quote="Sean Manning"]

Alasdair Grant-Hastings wrote:

Wood in medieval European scabbards is usually 1-2 mm thick, so some rolls of "veneer" can be suitable.

That is an interesting idea... my scabbards are usually too chunky. My next project is to make a scabbard for my bronze swords but the problem is that they have a thick middle ridge, which I don't think will be compatible with using veneer. :(

How about basswood? I think I have seen a comment somewhere that it's great for scabbards.

It's available in various thicknesses here:
http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Raw-Materials/Woo...mm/ITM3989

Catford Timber Co - I've got mine from these guys, around 10 years ago and I'm still using these to this day for grip work (10 planks, half an inch thick). Was cheap and straight forward to order but I collected the planks myself and have no idea if they will ship.