3 Reasons to Choose Baltic Birch Plywood

1. Cleaner Joinery and Superior Screw Holding
Anything you build out of Baltic birch should last a good, long time. Because the core is free of voids, the joinery won’t suffer from glue starvation—they’ll get 100% glue coverage.

And because the core layers of Baltic birch are actually veneers of birch (rather than a softer wood) and form a void-free core, screws bite and hold with 100% of their threads. Conversely, traditional veneer core plywood has voids and is also made up of softer materials so screws don’t get a chance to clench the best they can.

2. Improved Strength, Stability and thick Veneer
All plywood runs the risk of warping, and the most common type of warp in plywood is bowing.

But Birch Plywood is one of the most dimensionally stable plywoods in use today, because birch veneer is peeled from the trunks of birch trees. It differs from other plywood in that it is one of the few plywoods manufactured with nine or thirteen layers.

This makes it one of the most dense plywoods available. Multilayer birch plywood is used to make guitar bodies and other specialty items that require stability and hardness. The surface appearance of lacquered birch plywood is almost indistinguishable from lacquered solid birch.

The face and back veneers are remarkably thicker than other traditional cabinet-grade plywood veneers. Usually, cabinet grade plywood veneer faces are dismally thin, which makes them easy to damage and easy to sand through. But not so with Baltic birch. Outer veneers are nice and thick.

3. Attractive Appearance
One of the fortunate benefits to Baltic birch, too, is that you can leave the edges exposed if you like the look. Because the core is free of voids and all birch, the exposed edges sometimes have an appearance that works for the project, and this saves you time and material—no need to spend time and effort on applying edge tape or solid edge banding unless you want to.

Simply sand and finish the edges as they are. The face and back can be stained when you need a different color. Like solid birch lumber, for it to stain evenly with an oil based pigment stain you’ll need to apply a stain controller or a wash coat of de-waxed shellac. Otherwise, use dye for even color.

To keep the uniform, light colour, instead, simply finish Baltic birch with a basic clear top coat of lacquer or polyurethane.

The Applications of Baltic Birch Plywood are numerous:

1. Baltic birch has fantastic dimensional stability that makes it great for these items: work tables, tool cabinets, table saw sleds, clamp racks, tool stands, auxiliary fences, router jigs, push sticks, etc.
2. Baltic birch has a nice appearance for certain types of furniture as well. Casework, cabinets, drawer boxes, children’s furniture, craft tables, and shelves are just a few options. Baltic birch is a good choice for cabinets that go under sinks because of the exterior grade adhesive it’s laminated with. If you ever have a plumbing leak, there’s little worry that the cabinet will be destroyed. Conversely, cabinets that are made with particle board (which is common today) will easily foster mold if they get wet.
3. Baltic birch has numerous special applications, too. Custom speaker boxes, skateboards, teardrop trailer shells, scroll saw art, forms, CNC furniture parts, laser engraving, signage, etc. 

Lacquered Birch plywood on interior glue will be available from 1 August 2019 at our Melbourne warehouse in the following sizes:
1.   1220 mm x 2440 mm x 12 mm, 33 sheets per pack;
2.   1220 mm x 2440 mm x 18 mm, 22 sheets per pack.

Lacquered Birch plywood panels in other sizes, cut-to-size panels, and machining are available by request. You are welcome to shoot us an email with the details of your project for the best result.