Baltic Birch—Not

[Steve Soldo]

Needed some 3/4 Baltic Birch for a cabinet. Went to a local lumberyard that usually has good products.

In my experience Baltic Birch has a stamp with Cyrillic characters. This looks Chinese to me.

Anyone have the same experience?

[handi]

Sadly, even "Baltic Birch" coming from the Baltic is not what it used to be. often has voids and defects it never used to in the 80s when I started.

I have been spending WAY too much time in Woodcraft stores over the last several months, the BB they carry seems quite good.

Also, if the use allows, the phenolic faced plywood (sold as concrete form material) has a REALLY nice substrate, I use a lot of the 1/2" for jigs and sleds. like 11 layers in the 1/2", with virtually no voids. But the facing is not always the right thing for every project.

You may want to try a local hobby shop, especially one that caters to model airplanes. They sell "aircraft plywood" in many thicknesses that are really nice quality.

Last suggestion; talk to your supplier. Tell them your needs and see what they can get for you. Generally, with plywood, it is graded by both the face veneer quality AND the number of plys in the substrate. You want as many plys as possible in any thickness you buy. Like any lamination, more thinner layers is better than fewer thick ones.

[PVW]

A friend bought some really good looking 9 ply chinese plywood at Lowes several years ago for me to make him some cabinets. That stuff ruined every tool I put to it, even carbide. My dado blade , and 3 router bits, same profile. and 2 -10 in frued tablesaw blades. I could actually see sparks come off the wood. The left over was marked junk and set aside to burn. Pay a little extra and buy American

[MichaelMouse]

Needed some 3/4 Baltic Birch for a cabinet. Went to a local lumberyard that usually has good products.

In my experience Baltic Birch has a stamp with Cyrillic characters. This looks Chinese to me.

Anyone have the same experience?

Generic, like "Kleenex," I guess.  At least Menards does not advertise their high-ply birch plywood as "Baltic."  Got some a few weeks back.  

The BB I have purchased had the traditional purple ink stamp in Cyrillic, listing the factory number.  Though, if memory serves, BB started with the Finns, and the BB produced from Finnish machinery was of lesser quality. This may be one more slip toward the gutter.

[med-one]

Maybe the Chinese junk has lead in too.

[jteneyck]

I pay a lot more than $36/sheet for genuine 3/4" 5'x5' BB ply.  That would be my first indication something wasn't right.  And you are right, the real stuff has purple ink with Cyrillic characters on the edges.  I don't recall ever seeing anything on the faces, and definitely never Chinese characters.  


John

[Phil Thien]

I read a bit of Chinese and those characters start with something like “a fool and his money” but I cannot make it out after that.

[EricU]

$35 a sheet is really cheap, I'm surprised they don't just mark it up some more.

I got some Russian ply.  They do make 4x8 sheets, but mostly it's 60"x60"

[Bill Holt]

My supplier carries three options for each of the standard thicknesses of "Baltic Birch".

Example in 3/4":
  3/4x60x60 about $55
  3/4x48x96 about $48
  23/32x48x96 about $33

The Chinese version from Lowes and the $33 stuff had the same weird smell during cutting.

[AHill]

I pay a lot more than $36/sheet for genuine 3/4" 5'x5' BB ply.  That would be my first indication something wasn't right.  And you are right, the real stuff has purple ink with Cyrillic characters on the edges.  I don't recall ever seeing anything on the faces, and definitely never Chinese characters.  


John

+1.  The price would have been my first clue it wasn't the genuine version.  That said, the best "BB" I've ever used was 4'x8' and domestically made.  I paid around $90/sheet for that stuff, and I'd do it again.