# Imported Birch plywood v. domestic Birch plywood?



## technicallymark (Apr 2, 2010)

I was at one of the two HW dealers here in Sacramento and asked the guy behind the counter what was the difference between imported birch plywood and domestic birch plywood, besides being about 12 bucks cheaper in price. He began to tell me that the imported is much less stable than the domestic. He also chimed in with the fact that domestic actually measure 3/4 inch thickness and the imported was 18mm thick(almost an entire millimeter, but i didn't want show off my math skills right then). I'm really just looking for affordable plywood to practice making cabinets for the shop and jigs as I find more and more uses for them. Has anyone had any "real" problem with imported birch plywood? Thanks.


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

In my experience, Baltic Birch ply is darned good. Flat, strong and void free. As far as domestic is concerned, Appleply is pretty nice, too. Cabinet grade Birch ply is OK, but for jigs I always use BB or Appleply. The price differences between the three types is usually negligible. Compare plys and faces.
Thicknesses of BB is pretty consistent. 1/2" is really 15/32". Not for a long time, have I found any sheet goods, foreign or domestic, except veneered MDF that is a full 1/2" or 3/4". And, MDF ain't plywood!


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