Replies

1. 
   WayneL5 | Sep 17, 2009 05:10am | #1

   Pine has coarse grain and lots of resin so it tends to move with the weather and take paint badly.  It is also in the U.S. Forest Service category of most decay prone woods.

   Poplar is stable and takes tooling and paint very nicely.

   I don't know about sycamore.

   You might want to ask at the Knots forum as well.  There's more folks there likely to have worked extensively with many species of wood.

2. 
   Sphere | Sep 17, 2009 02:39pm | #2

   Of the three, I would opt for the Poplar IF youcan use only the Olive colored heart wood, not the white sapwood. Termites and ants here avoid it, and kept painted,, will last quite a while..My house ( pre civil war) is all trimmed in poplar heartwood. Still there for the most part.  But this is Kentucky poplar..and Yellow or Tulip at that. You may have Aspen?

   Then the clear pine, it has been used by many manufacturers for many years. Again, what KIND of clear pine? White, Sugar, Lodgepole?

   Last the Syc. Syc is pretty, and dense, but it warps like crazy and is pretty rot prone

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3. 
   Hiker | Sep 17, 2009 07:28pm | #3

   I have used poplar, CVG doug fir and cvg redwood with great success.  Prime well, especially the exposed ends and keep the paint up and you should not have any issues. 

   Do not use yellow pine or any PT as they will warp as soon as you turn around.