Baltic Birch

[millwab]

Just wondering if all BB is created equal. I was on the phone with a lumber company ordering some cypress for a couple of Adirondack chairs and asked if by chance they carried BB (you know, the 'real' stuff that comes in 5'x5' sheets). It isn't carried anywhere local to me, and I didn't see it on their web site, but sure enough they carry it. Since delivery is free within 150 miles of their yard, I thought I'd stock up. They wanted $11 for a 1/8" thick sheet. To those of you that have local access to BB, is this a reasonable price?

[Jediscroller]

That's a good price Bruce. I'd suggest stocking up at that price too. My local lumber yard's price just jumped from $11 to $16 a sheet.

[PeteB]

There are grades of Baltic birch, something to watch out for:

B - Clear face
BB - Some football patches
BBB - More patches, maybe some splits and streaking

The very best Baltic birch is B/BB (clear one side, some patches on the other). A lot being sold is BB/BBB.

This is just for clarification. That price you got is very good, regardless of grade. I'd grab it up!

Pete

[Capt Weasel]

Thats a good price. I get it for $12.50 a sheet here. The guy has all 3 grades and I have to sift through it to pick what I want. I've bout picked the B dry and now I'm down to BB and some BBB that I have to cut around the footballs.

[lucky788scroller]

Pete gave a good explanation. Here in WI the best I can get it for is $14.00 a sheet for 1/8th, and $21 a sheet for 1/4 (B/BB grade) Dale

[bobledoux]

Some of the baltic birch is junk.

I purchased a sheet of half inch from my local hardwood supplier. It was a cabinet grade material. Face plies were sanded very thin. There were voids in the inner plies. Some inner ply edges were lapped over each other so the press had to compress the material back to desired thickness. There were glue voids.

These defects might work out in cabinet drawer construction but not when small pieces need to be cut. I built a wooden gear clock using this material and small parts had to be rebuilt using a higher quality stock.

Check the grade of material you are buying.

[millwab]

There are grades of Baltic birch, something to watch out for:

B - Clear face
BB - Some football patches
BBB - More patches, maybe some splits and streaking

According to the supplier, it's BB/BB. If there are 'some' patches on both sides, hopefully they won't be on top of each other. If they are spaced out enough, a patch on one side will be far enough away from one on the other side that the pieces I cut it into will still have one 'good' side. I'll have to see when it's delivered. At $11/sheet I'm sure I'll get my moneys worth.

[Tor]

You are lucky to get such prices. Here a sheet of 1/2" CDX runs $25/sheet (US). Because I haven't used BB I haven't looked for a source to have a price on that. Good information here if I go looking.

Tor

[JoelM]

I get Baltic Birch here for $11.30 a sheet. I read the other thread about BB and couldn't believe some of the prices !

http://www.kencraftcompany.com/