# Swapping birch for cherry?



## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

I'm building a sizable toy chest for someone, and wanted to use cherry plywood for panels (1/2"), but after checking out prices, would like to consider another option. It seems that I read somewhere that birch plywood is very similar in grain to cherry, and is often used as a substitute? I could just stain the birch a light cherry color, and I'd still have the look I'm after, at about 1/2 the price.

Anyone comment?


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## rwyoung (Nov 22, 2008)

Overtime as the cherry and birch change colors the stain will no longer match.

You can make your own small quantity of cherry ply by using cherry veneer over MDF, etc. This will present its own set of problems and it can still shift color differently than solid cherry. Might even be cheaper than buying a full sheet of 1/2" cherry ply. You will have to run the numbers for yourself.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

I have never heard that birch and cherry were interchangeable. I have used birch and maple plywoods in this fashion though since it is difficult to tell the two apart (this was a tip that Norm gave out on one of the episodes of the NYW).

But even if you can get the two to look similar now I agree that over time the colors of the two woods will not be the same.


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## pvwoodcrafts (Aug 31, 2007)

Is solid cherry out of the question?


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

birch can resembles maple but cherry is darker and not quite a good swap.


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

I guess I mis-spoke. I'm making the toybox out of QSWO, the frame, that is, and the panels were to be cherry plywood. Instead, I'd like to use birch, stained a light reddish-brown, to simulate cherry. I don't think birch will darken, as cherry would have, which is fine; I don't want it too.

I was looking to see if anyone else had made such a swap successfully…


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## woodprof (Aug 31, 2009)

I tried that with a couple of bookcases, and although it came out OK, the plywood won't fool anyone taking more than a casual glance into thinking it's cherry. In retrospect I wish I had bitten the bullet and sprung for the extra cost of cherry ply.


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

Interesting….


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## MOJOE (Jun 13, 2009)

I sprayed "medium brown" tinted shellac on a birch crib not too long ago…...I kinda think it looks cherry-ish….might check it out and see what you think…..the headboard has birch ply panels as well, but the slats are maple.


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## fussy (Jan 18, 2010)

Pashley,

Birch plywood is a fine substitute for cherry; especially if cherry is around $90/sheet as it is here. Stain scrap until you get what you want. You MAY want to look at the qswo up against the cherry stained birch and see how the color/grain combination play together. It may work with just a clear finish on both. It pays to test first.

Steve


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