Uses for white (paper) birch?

[Dan Forman]

Does anyone ever use birch in it's non-plywood form? I found some interesting stuff at a wood dealer, called "character birch", has a few small knots, more interesting grain than the standard birch, and a bit of spalting on some boards. It's cheap, about $1.39 b/f, so I thought it would be good learning material for my first few hardwood projects, mostly utilitarian, shelving or small cabinets and such. They also have some nice spalted birch, with much more spalting in them, which sells for considerably more.

I have looked about the site here and not found any references to using birch for cabinety or furniture. Is there a reason for avoiding it? The spalted birch looks a lot like spalted maple, would think it would make nice accent things like drawer faces and the like.

Here is a pic, the spalted is at the bottom, with 2 boards of character birch above it. Just to confuse things, the pic was taken against my oak floor.

Dan

[John Hart]

I wonder how that would behave if you sliced it thin and steamed it for Shaker Boxes? Seems like birch bends well and that wood is beautiful!!

[Todd Burch]

Dan, I think the reason you don't see much solid birch furniture or cabinets is that it is typically such a nondescript wood... the grain is usually nothing to write home about and it's not as generally available as maple.

Birch is a good hardwood. I use it for painted items when I want more ding and dent resistance than poplar offers. With dull planer/jointer knives, it tends to chip out some.

The wood you have there looks nice. I would use it too. It would work well being used as a reproduction of an older style piece for furniture. It's plenty hard for most any use you would want to use it for - a floor, a workbench top, etc.

Todd

[Dave Tinley]

Nice looking stuff and great price.
First thought that comes to mind for me would be a frame and panel piece. I would use the birch for the panel and then something like walnut for the frame.
Post pics after you get something built.

Dave

[Frank Pellow]

Dan, that birch looks great! I will be very interested to see what you make with it and I will keep my eyes open to see if I can locate some birch with as much "character" as that you have shown us.

[Jim W. White]

Dan,

I think that Birch looks like a great deal. I've known some people to do their entire kitchen's in birch. It works well and is reasonably hard. In fact, I'll be PMing you to see just how far away that source of Birch is from here

...Jim W

[Ralph Barhorst]

My SIL is making a trestle table for his kitchen from birch and it looks pretty good.

I am in the process of making a changing table/dresser for my daughter from birch and so far I think it looks good. Some people use it as a substitute for Maple.

[Andy London]

When white birch is intermixed with sugar maple, in the select grade which I use, very few can tell any difference in the grain. I have been using it in cabinetry for the past 14 years as it's quite a bit softer and machines very, very well....aside from that it can be bought for about $1.00 a b.f. here as there is so much of it. Very, Very easy to spalt, by far the easiest that I have seen.

In short, if you can get it that sheap, rough....and you have ny furniture or turning projects in the winds, it would be an excellent choice.....IMO

Andy

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for the information. For a while I feared I would read "it will immediately assume the contour of a pretzel upon release of the clamps", or similar discouraging words.

John---Not sure how it would work if sliced thin, the spalting would make it a bit fragile I'm afraid.

Dave---I thought of frame and panel too, as well as shaker table or desk drawer faces for the spalted stuff. I like the contrasting wood approach too.

They had some spalted maple as well, so I picked up a couple of boards of that too. It cost even less than the spalted birch. The 4/4 board has some nice quilting in it too, which knocked the price up to about $5 bf. I think I will be shopping there often.

I hope to get 240V current into my shop this weekend, still awaiting the mag switch for the Gorilla DC (I don't remember reading about anyone else awaiting the backordered switch). Then there is the ductwork, so it may be a couple of weeks before things are up and running. In the meantime, I am giving lots of thought to what I want to build. There will difinately be some shaker inspired things, love those end tables and slant top desks.

Dan