Plywood with thicker hardwood veneer faces

Is there such a thing as plywood with thicker veneer faces? 20 years ago it seemed there was sufficient thickness for careful work methods to produce a nice result. These days it seems that the sheets can barely stand a moderate sanding without blowing through the veneer,and ruining the job.

Short of veneering my own panels, is there another solution?

Good question - am looking for some as well. I've seen good plywood used for some workbenches branded Ryobi. No idea where it was made. Top notch plywood was needed for some printing methods and those went the way of the dodo. And so the plywood.

some personal experience that doesn't really add up to an answer....

In the mid-1980's I had a flitch of white oak veneer cut to 1/10" thick leaves, intention being to use it for bent-laminated furniture I was developing at the time. 3 decades later the whole flitch is still in the factory crate in an old mill i sold to a brother. sigh.

Observation: at least back then, you could call a veneer mill and have them slice a 1/4 or 1/2 log or larger quantity to whatever thickness 1/10" or thinner desired. The price was fully competitive with the "normal" product, though of course one does not get the same area out of a thickly sliced flitch, as a more thinly sliced log. So while volume cost is similar, cost/sf of face material does increase. I don't think it is directly proportionate. IOW there is less cutting and handling of thicker sheets yielding production efficiencys for the mill, but the drying may be longer or it may be less efficient to modify the cycles for a short run.

Sometime a bit later, (but still long ago ) I had a 1/2 dozen sheets of 3/4" QS steamed beech plywood and one panel on MDF for horizontal surfaces made. The cost was competitive with standard factory made hardwood plywoods of "faintly" exotic character (Like say plain sliced walnut) - about $80 - $90/sheet IIRC. The problem was that was my first experience of the super-thin faces that started to become common. IOW, the material was well made, but it was the thinnest I had experienced 'til then. It had not occurred to me to qualify/quantify that spec. (I faintly hand sanded any scuff marks and promptly shellac'd both sides of all the sheets before progressing with machining & fabrication)

Vague conclusion: You can probably have sheets for a given project laid up to your specs, in quantities as few as 5 sheets, for a "reasonable" premium, including your spec for face veneer thickness. Lost time in the pipeline increasing proportionately. The plywood maker has a lead time, then they have to call the veneer slicer and wait for their timeline, etc.

Almost all millwork panels are custom made, and the standards for those can be high. The formerly common type of installation where you walk into a 5 story atrium and it is paneled everywhere with 4 x 8 (or 4 x 10) sheets of closely figure matched plywood panels with reveals between them.

Besides the wonders of online searching, it could be worth a call to your regular hardwood plywood supplier - they may know someone or occasionally broker a batch.

Here's an example, there's more out there. Absolutely no recommendation, I've never heard of this supplier before Google. But the type of services they offer are typical in millwork.

Veneer Faces - High Quality Veneer Manufacturing in Pompano Beach, FL

smt

The plywood sold at places like Home Depot or Lowes is of a particular quality.

A supply warehouse that sells to cabinet makers is where the action is. If $50 - $100 a 4x8 sheet is not objectionable. At a place by me they have quality sheets and a few examples of boat-job import crap.

I have not been to Aura Hardwoods for five years. They have moved but the new place looks nice. They sell to cabinet makers.

San Jose Google Street View — Aura Hardwoods

last time I bought good stuff it was from the local hardwood supplier,
they claimed that it was domestic plywood, but that's been a few years
but you could actually tell the difference between that and homedepot crap.

stephen thomas said:

The formerly common type of installation where you walk into a 5 story atrium and it is paneled everywhere with 4 x 8 (or 4 x 10) sheets of closely figure matched plywood panels with reveals between them.

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Like this picture ?
Spliced faces

They have a mill location down the road from a relative, so I googled it.

Doug - yep, like that.

To the people mentioned home despot or "(very)lows"; I kind of already assumed the OP was currently buying from a regular hardwood plywood jobber, like say Atlantic (in my area). Because even that stuff has gotten quite thin. At least the sheets are properly oversized most of the time.

http://atlanticplywood.com/products.php

smt

I don't know if it would suit your purpose but over here we get birch ply ,this has every layer the same thickness, it is what pattern makers use.It is not easy to get hold of and is not cheap but it is proper stuff.

Yes, I’m using a local plywood distributor who caters to the cabinet trade. But what is available in stock is pretty poor stuff Thanks for all the comments.

I noticed the something with the sawed lumber more crap in the pile
then there used to be.

sable said:

I don't know if it would suit your purpose but over here we get birch ply ,this has every layer the same thickness, it is what pattern makers use.It is not easy to get hold of and is not cheap but it is proper stuff.

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Here we call that stuff Baltic Birch. Not fancy but great stuff to have around. I keep some sheets for projects.

Russian/Baltic birch over here (east coast USA) is a good product and rather inexpensive.
I use it for patterns and commodity parts, and to veneer with other faces.

I used to make a set of stackable storage units out of it that I was hoping to mass-market. I also used it for a number of modern inflected sculptural installations. It is a great product, except as I noted in the past: EVERYTHING I ever made from it had grain raising issues after installation. This was despite a grain -raising step during the original finish process. It occurred with water based floor finishes for the cabinets, and with shellac for the sculptural installations. Being shellac, I was able to repair/refinish the custom installations on-site by sanding with 400 grit all over, and re-french polishing. The stackable boxes are a commodity item. the roughened finish in areas bothers me, but no one I know had called to complain. I see some of them in offices and in a couple private homes and it does make me cringe.

smt

I have never been disappointed with a sheet of lumber core plywood. $100 - $200. If you compare side by side a quality lumber core or veneer core sheet with a bargain sheet the differences are noticeable.

instead of the baltic birch the local suppler had what they called maple apple plywood
came in 8X4 sheets great stuff used it for drawer stock and such

You probably mean Appleply.

20-25 years ago I used it for a few jobs, then the company was re-organized and it became unavailable on any kind of reliable basis, on the east coast. A few years ago, they seem to have gotten their act together, & it was available at Lowes and the Despot, only in small cut sheets. More recently I have bought it again for specific items from my regular hardwood plywood supplier. I got a couple sheets with the idea to start using it for the stackable shelving units, but it hurts the price point. I seriously prefer Appleply, but it is about twice as expensive on a SF basis, compared with Baltic Birch.

smt

stephen thomas said:

You probably mean Appleply.

20-25 years ago I used it for a few jobs, then the company was re-organized and it became unavailable on any kind of reliable basis, on the east coast. A few years ago, they seem to have gotten their act together, & it was available at Lowes and the Despot, only in small cut sheets. More recently I have bought it again for specific items from my regular hardwood plywood supplier. I got a couple sheets with the idea to start using it for the stackable shelving units, but it hurts the price point. I seriously prefer Appleply, but it is about twice as expensive on a SF basis, compared with Baltic Birch.

smt

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that could very well be the name.
funny how lumber availability varies on the different coasts

I use a lot of baltic birch, but only for jigs, fixtures, bending forms, cauls, etc. I love the stuff, but in my experience it was never flat enuf to use for my furniture needs. A good lumber core plywood is the best in my opinion, altho Ive seen really old pieces of veneer core that were still perfectly flat. Wonder what they did then that they don't now?