Flame Birch - Difficult for beginner?

As long as blades are sharp you will be fine.

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You should be fine. It machines very easily IME.
Sort of like curly maple.

-- He who dies with the most tools... dies with the emptiest wallet.

Along with the previously mentioned sharpness on hand and power tools, you can also sand figured birch and maple to a much higher polish. I’ve sanded them to 320 and 400 dry, then 600 and 1000 after sealing with 1 lb shellac or lacquer sanding sealer. With other woods, this is a waste of time, but it really lights up the flames.

My first experience with figured birch taught me the difference between sharp for oak and walnut, and sharp for figured stuff, on my jointer and thickness planer.

How are you going to finish it? Finishing highly figured woods can be different…

-- It's all good, if it's wood...

I haven’t worked with it, but I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome if you decide to use it!

-- Tristin King -- When in doubt, sand it.

CesnaPilot…don’t have a clue on finishing yet…just now beginning to think about the project. Thanks for the advice.

Save those scraps!

Finishing flamed woods means riding the “blotch” to your advantage. The figure soaks up dye and oil at different rates, accentuating the figure. What’s a “problem” on other woods is a feature on figured birch and maple.

-- It's all good, if it's wood...

I’d suggest doing a few shop projects with yellow birch (flame birch is usually Betula alleganiensis) first. Google bench hook, sawbench, winding sticks, corner measure, and an assortment of handles—saw, plane—tote and knob, chisel, cleaver and machete’ It will be a lot more fun than fighting with hard, expensive, and difficult stock. Just make some stuff where you can determine your own “Standard of Excellence nee Acceptance” Good luck

-- Steve, 'Sconie Great White North