I was at my suburban Chicago lumberyard yesterday and was chatting with one of the guys about the extreme cost of Baltic Birch. He suggested that I might try using a product called Element PerformPly. It appears to be solid and gap-free like Baltic Birch, but has an odd grayish color. It’s sold in the U.S. by Sierra Forest Products, which is a division of Upper Canada Forest Products. Their website indicates PerformPly uses Estonian white birch. The cost locally is significantly lower – $150 for a 3/4″ 4×8 vs. $279 for BB. Has anyone used this product? If so, pros and cons?
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There are two versions that I have read about. Haven't used or seen either myself. One version is a c grade sapwood white birch veneer over a poplar core and the other is the same veneer over rubberwood. In the reading and photos I've seen there is nothing that indicates the grey tones you mentioned but if you have seen it and its grey then it's grey. The advertising says it is " beautiful "! They are pushing the fact that its sustainable and " conflict free" so you can have wokey feelings buying the stuff. Until that war ends it seems that the price of birch anything is going to be astronomical no matter where it's sourced. And the prices for either product you mentioned seem prohibitively high to me. It's just birch plywood after all, to me not even the good stuff! In most cases the reason to use plywood is that it is more economical than lumber. It seems that the cost of plywood is now rivaling the cost of actual wood.
Thanks for the response. It's odd that a Google search turns up no reviews or mentions of the product other than the Sierra Forest website. I'll take another look at it next time I'm at the lumberyard, but you're right - their website images show the normal yellow color you would expect. As for price, there aren't a lot of choices for buying quality lumber in the Chicago area, so I suspect that's part of the reason for the high prices - captive audience. Looking at their price list, there are a lot of other choices for grade C plywood at much cheaper prices, but you end up having to deal with gaps in the ply. I made a set of BB plywood drawers based on an article by Gary Rogowski (Versatile Plywood Drawers, issue #131). They're simple, easy to make and I was hoping to make some more for friends or maybe to sell. But the plywood is not edge-banded, hence my issue with gaps in the ply.
Sierra Forest has an office in West Chicago (a western suburb) - I may call them to find out if it's possible to buy direct and what the price is.
I've stopped using 3/4 BB for shop projects, partly due to cost and partly because in my opinion 1/2 BB generally is sufficient. On rare occasions when beefier wood is called for, I face-glue two pieces of 1/2. Plus, my home supply center has relatively decent non-finished birch ply in 3.4, at a more reasonable cost.
If you're making drawers, I think you'll find 1/2 or even 5/8 BB is sufficient. Or, you could always make your drawer boxes with poplar.
Hope this helps.
That p ply claims no voids and the Apple ply that I like has no voids but even so, I don't like the look of the ply edge and always face exposed edges with wood to match whatever Im doing. You can get Apple ply in quite a few different hardwood veneers and also pre finished. The outside veneers are also thick enough that you can sand it without burning through which with some plywood that I have used isn't always the case. In truth though I do very little anymore with sheet stock. I'm a retired lifer woodworker and would do whatever paid in my career and built a lot of cabinets but eventually found a niche in building all wood cabinets - fronts, backs ,drawers, drawer bottoms using only lumber / no plywood or sheet materials. I couldn't compete against factory made cabinets or even against small shops that only do cabinetry. I offered a different thing for clients that knew the difference. I only needed one project like that every once in a while. I never really liked doing cabinets but people will pay a lot for the kitchen they want!
Like I mentioned before, with sheet goods getting close to the cost of lumber it makes a good case for just using wood. The work is more satisfying and the result is just nicer. There are ways around the lumber yards and wood merchants as far as pricing goes for wood. I take a certain amount of pleasure going on the hunt and stumbling on some stash that only cost me a fraction of the going prices. Show someone a stack of $20 s that's maybe only $500 - a pile of bills and they want it and you drive home with a truck load of wood!