What Wood For Ornaments?

[Toneman]

I am going to stack cut several tree ornaments and need advice on what wood ya'll use? I have cut some using poplar hardwood and baltic birch plywood and the blades zipped right through with no problem. But, I plan on cutting some fret patterns like on snow flakes, etc. What wood will be strong so I will not have wood breakage on delicate patterns but can still stack cut?

Tony,aka,Toneman

[wood-n-things]

I use Mahogany, hickory (thin), butternut, chestnut, walnut, black walnut. Just about anything besides oak and other splintery woods. I prefer to use 1/8" for ornaments.

[Forester21]

I just made a bunch out of 1/8 inch oak.
T

[oily]

I use Mahogany, hickory (thin), butternut, chestnut, walnut, black walnut. Just about anything besides oak and other splintery woods. I prefer to use 1/8" for ornaments.

Me 2 and 1/8 BB

[louhodson]

A friend gave me a box of 1/4" Baltic Birch offcuts from some of his projects. I made my first 3 ornaments ever from that. They were the kind that slide together at 90 degrees for a 3d look. It was a lot of fretwork but I didn't break any of them. The great thing about Baltic Birch Ply is there are no "voids" to contend with as in regular plywood. The edges cleaned up with minor sanding and no filling. Weeks later, I used some Luan on a piece and found many voids and delamination from the poor gluing of layers. I haven't tried hard woods yet, but I have some extremely expensive Poplar that I'm going to slice into boards later this summer. We'll see how $500 per board foot wood performs.
Lou

[Rolf]

I use use 1/16 (1.5mm) Finish birch ply for my very delicate ornaments I stack them 6 up.
These are 2 of my favorites and are 4.5 in in diameter.

[Toneman]

Thanks For Ornament Wood Advice

Want to thank ya'll for your advice on ornament wood. Rolf, those are beautiful! My wife is wanting me to cut those already, but, after a little more experience! LOL I just ordered some of the wood ya'll mentioned,so, will get to cutting as soon as it arrives!

Tony,aka,Toneman

[Bill Wilson]

Lighter colored woods tend to stand out better on the tree, but I like to use darker woods like cherry & walnut anyway. I just really like the color and grain. For really delicate & thin ornaments, BB ply works well and is less prone to to breakage. I also use BB ply if I intend to paint the ornament.

[Paladin]

For snowflakes I always use aspen for the white color.