birch availability?

[CNT]

Are there solid baltic birch available?

Are "baltic" and "brich" same thing?

Are Appleply for if wanting "maple" look?

Chuck

[Charlie Self]

Chuck asks:

Are "baltic" and "brich" same thing?

Are Appleply for if wanting "maple" look?

[Leon]

So uh, Charlie, How is that Bird House book coming along?

[Andy Dingley]

If you go to the Baltic. Not much of it gets exported as solid timber though.

No, I can buy Latvian ply locally that's birch, and some that isn't. All the birch ply I see locally (UK) is Baltic-sourced, but then some of the "birch" is no more made of birch than the "mahogany" is mahogany. Even for birch ply from the Baltic region, there's good stuff and bad stuff. The really nice stuff is good veneers without voids, thin veneers, and lots of them.

Talk to your supplier. Talk quality to them. I've not personally seen top-grade non-tropical ply that wasn't "baltic birch", but then it your part of the world there might be something just as good that isn't from there. I live in a city that has been importing Baltic timber for a couple of hundred years - it's just our usual local product.

[Robert Bonomi]

Not a meaningful question, _as_stated_. It's not at all clear what you are trying to ask.

'Baltic birch' is _plywood_, thus it is *not* "solid" lumber.

Baltic birch plywood does not have any 'holes' in the interior, so it _is_ "solid" in the sense of being "void free" (the technical description).

Thus, the answer to the question, as asked, is "yes", *OR* "no", depending on what you intended to be asking.

"brich" ?? Ah, the singular of 'britches' -- thats like one pant of a pair! :)

seriously...

No. 'Birch" is the name for a family of wood species. Describes several different kinds of trees. White Birch, River Birch, Silver Birch, Paper Birch, etc.

'Baltic birch' describes a type of _plywood_, made from a comparatively large number of _thin_ plies, that is, among other things, "void free". i.e. no knot-holes, or similar 'gaps' in the interior plies. It's made from birch wood.

"Appleply" is a brand-name. Usually sold in a poplar veneer. Looks 'sorta-kinda' like maple, depending on how you finish.

[CNT]

So...

"baltic" is a name of a country/region or culture. "birch" is a type of wood species.

"birch" wood can be found in solids. "baltic birch" just means a type of plywood with birch layers.

Correct?

[Leon]

Correct. Baltic Birch is unique in that it has about twice as many layers as regular plywood for the same thickness, sold in 5' x 5' sheets, and the inner layers are the same wood as the outer layer. Typically hardwood veneer plywoods have pine interior layers and sometimes a couple of layers of MDF.

Baltic Birch plywood is very similar to "Russian" plywood and Appleply. Appleply being the American version of the Baltic Birch type plywood.

[CNT]

So, it is possible for me to buy birch lumber, not the ply ones? I haven't looked for it, just want to know if I could buy it locally.

Chuck

[Patriarch]

CNT wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Yes, you can. Depending on what you do, it may be more, or less, useful to you.

Find the best supplier of sheet goods to the cabinet making trade, and find out if they sell to hobbyists. These folks generally know their stuff! For example, I spent 5 minutes with the counter guy yesterday at the yard

spent $175, and came home with a load of REALLY nice stuff, matching exactly what I needed.

I needed 1 premium sheet in quarter inch, MDF core, maple, plus some other stuff. I actually only needed about 1/4 sheet for the project that's on the bench, but you can't buy this stuff that way. When I loaded into the storage rack, I found that the side I hadn't seen was maybe 80% birdseye, bookmatched veneers. Sometimes you get MORE than you paid for.

So find a good yard, that moves a lot of volume. Go in mid-afternoon, when it's slower. Ask a few questions, and take some recommendations. Most of these places also sell hardwoods, too. At least enough to work with the sheet goods they sell.

Patriarch