Baltic Birch Myth

[pixy]

Hi guys after working on a horse portrait for a couple of days I was coming to my last cuts, I realy loved it and yes you have guest a large piece dropped out, why rubish ply. This morning on the never ending quest for Baltic Birch I contacted a srecialist ply importers and asked about Baltic Birch, I was asked what I wanted it for and I explained everything our US cusons tell us, I was very embarassed at his next comment he replied saying how does the Birch know where it came from. He said it does not matter where the Birch comes from as longe as it is birch through out, this gives you perfect quality for scroll sawing.I contacted my local Arnald Laver and enquiered about birch through out plywood
and was plesenly suprised at the reply. 3mmx5x5 £7-00+vat 6mmx8x4 £17-00+vat Mal \/

 

[chrispuzzle]

Birch is a family of trees, betula in Latin, not just a single variety. There are loads of different birches, so the birch does care what variety it is, if not where it comes from.

"Baltic Birch" isn't a variety, though, but most of it comes from countries up that way, Russia, Latvia, Finland etc. The Americans are presumably using the phrase to distinguish it from native American varieties of birch, of which there are many. I'm guessing that there might be several varieties involved too: SL Hardwoods offers a "Finnish long-gran birch" for example.

Birch throughout would be better than rubbish throughout though! The other thing you need to look out for is the grading of the wood. B/BB for example means that the outer lamination is of a better quality than the interior leaves, which are not guaranteed to be knot-free.

But hey, £17 for a sheet of 6mm 8x4 is a lot of portraits for not very much. Let us know what the quality is like when you get it?

 

[pixy]

Hi Chriss puzzler Do you think I have been led astray, The guy told me that all birch gives thinner layers wich gives it it strength.??????? Chriss do you do upright puzzles as I am interested in making some .What timber would you suggest and what size and blade type would you use? mal

 

[jasonB]

The aircraft ply (3mm)you are getting will be good quality, althoug there are a few different specs for this type of ply depending if its actually going into an aircraft or just being used for laminating etc. The main thing is that it should be free of voids. Without seeing the full spec of the 6mm its hard to say as it may have thicker central layers with the odd void.

Finnish birch was and still is considered the best source as the trees grow slower the timber is denser, latvian is now more common an dstill not too bad, just avoid the Chinease stuff.

Long grain ply refers to the direction of the grain on the outer layers.

Does sound a bit cheap though, £20 would be more like it for finnish aircraft/skin ply 5x5

Jason

 

[chrispuzzle]

Hi Chriss puzzler Do you think I have been led astray, The guy told me that all birch gives thinner layers wich gives it it strength.??????? Chriss do you do upright puzzles as I am interested in making some .What timber would you suggest and what size and blade type would you use? mal

I don't do upright puzzles I'm afraid, just the flat ones with hundreds of pieces. I'm sure your supplier is not trying to lead you astray but I expect he's also trying to make a sale...for our purposes it's not just the thin layers and the strength, it's the voids like Jason says.

The supply I have at present for puzzles is Russian and 4mm, not perfect but OK, I have very few problems with it.

Thanks Jason for explaining about the long grain!

 

[pixy]

Hi Jason the ply I'm talking about is supplied by Arnald Lavers and I wasn't infomed it was air craft ply .But I think it might be worth a look at.What would be great would a photo of the end grain showing the layers of any one using baltic birch.Mal

 

[jasonB]

Here is a closeup of a tapered lamination using 1.5mm skinply,(finnish birch throughout BBX grade, the tapered fillets are cut from sycamore, one skin above, 3 below in ctr of pic

The Russian stuff is usually not FSC etc which some people may have an issue with.

Jason

 

[John. B]

Even Alder is a member of the Birch family :-k

John. B

 

[pixy]

Hi guys I have just recieved an e mail from Arnold Lavers, They tell me the latvian ply is BB/CP Exteria .Is that any good.Mal

 

[jasonB]

The Latvian 12 & 18mm stuff I've had recently has been OK, so yours is likely to be the same.

Jason

 

[pixy]

What does FSC stand for ???? Mal

 

[chrispuzzle]

What does FSC stand for ???? Mal

It stands for "Forest Steward Council" - FSC certification means the wood is said to come from a sustainable forest.