Finding baltic birch

[jseiler]

I am located about a hour south of Indianapolis in Bloomington, Indiana and I am having a hard time finding baltic birch at reasonable prices. I found one place (northwest lumber co-Indy) that has 3/4" 5'x5' bb baltic at $55/sheet. I'm willing to take delivery on a relatively large quantity, but no one seems interested in a one time deal with a small guy. Any advice and any leads specific to indiana?

John

[kivimagi]

John,

I get mine at a small hardwood retailer, but I'm fairly convinced they get it from Weyerhauser. http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/

I gotta believe you can find someone around Bloomington who is a retailer of Weyerhauser's products, maybe even a small lumber yard.

I think I was quoted $40/sheet on 3/4 5'x5'..

Regards,

[mziegler]

John, Menards now have it 4' by 8' sheets of Baltic Birch plywood. Cabinet grade. $57 for 18mm 4'x8'. They have stores in the midwest. http://www.menards.com/ Mark.

[jseiler]

I was in menard's the other day and lo, and behold...baltic birch on the top rack of the ply stand. I climbed up one level like they ask you not to do and found all 12 sheets they had warped very badly. If menards holds to form, they'll keep that stuff around until it sells before they get more in. I might have to hit another menard's to see if their storage was better. Heck, even the 1/2" was warped badly.

I really like baltic birch as a furniture base material though.

John

[wiese]

John,

Lowes also carries baltic birch.

[waynelocke]

John,

I have been using Baltic Birch for veneering and furniture but the selection in Austin is not very good. I recently purchased some plywood from North American Plywood out of California. Shipping was substantial but I got some great plywood. They carry a wide selection but you have to buy a full bundle of an item and then you can piggyback individual items on that. I bought some 8' X 4' (grain goes the 4' direction) Finnish birch. The Finnish Birch came 10 sheets to a bundle. I can veneer this the full 8' without crossbanding. It was all fairly pricey but is great plywood and I don't have to go to my local supplier and be dissappointed at the now mostly Chinese ply that comes pre formed, it seems, for boat hulls.

Wayne Locke

[billp]

Gentlemen,
This could be another case of using the "'Bot network" to everyone's advantage. As some of you may have seen in Ed Conley's posting a few days ago, the Atlanta area 'Botters got together at Ed's Camp back in January and formulated a scenario where they were able to do a "bulk buy"of Trupan, since it wasn't easy for some people to find.
This let them buy a bunch of it, and get a discount. I don't see why this wouldn't work in other areas as well. I think the fair way to arrange something like this would be to have everyone pay a few dollars extra per sheet (which would probably still keep the price lower than buying one at a time) so that whoever becomes the "designated depot" gets something for their time/effort.Then it would come down to working out pickup times which would not inconvenience the person who takes this task on...
I'm going to promote this idea at each Camp I attend this year, as it appears to provide a very useful service to those owners who are small shops, and unable to buy/store full "units" at a time.....

[kivimagi]

Bill,

I think this is a great idea, especially for those folks who have a large bot-network within their area.

For those folks within my area, i.e. SE MN, I am very interested in this. I have a couple large "warehouses" at my disposal if it works out.

Wayne. Will you share the price per sheet you paid for your "finnish birch" material? I'm curious how it compares with the baltic birch I've received from Weyerhouser, which does come from China I believe.

Regards,

[srwtlc]

Ryan,

I don't know exactly where you are located, but the hardwood and ply company that I get most of my stuff from carries baltic birch ply from 1/4 to 3/4ths, 5 x 5 and 4 x 8, BB/BB and some BB/CP. Their 1-10 sheet price for 3/4 - 4 x 8 - BB/CP rotary cut is $53.29. The unit price goes down to $48.89 (this may not be the most current pricing). You may want to give them a call. They're really nice to work with, ask for OZ. It's Friendship Hardwoods in Adams, WI. 1-800-525-9892

I know that they make runs to the Chicago area so they must go west towards MN aslo.

I haven't used any of their baltic birch (maybe one sheet of 1/4"), but I get all my hardwood lumber and other plywood from them.

Scott

[harold_weber]

Hi John Seiler, I'm located 1 hour east of Bloomington (Columbus). Paxton Lumber out of Cincinnatti delivers to Columbus one day each week if you are a business with a loading dock. The material comes on a skid so you'll need a pallet jack or a fork lift truck. I've bought the following from them over the past year and a half at these prices:
9mm Baltic birch 5x5 $17.00
12mm Baltic birch 5x5 $21.00
18 mm Trupan Ultra Lite 4x8 $30.00
Sometimes there is a $5.00 delivery charge.
I'm sure these prices have gone up.

[jseiler]

Thanks Harold. I called them and they will deliver to bloomington as well. I didn't get firm prices as yet because their woodshop people had already left for the day. They did say they only had bb/bb baltic though...nothing better.

John

[jseiler]

Harold - I finally got a response from Aetna Plywood in Indy. $43.75/sht b/bb 18mm, but you have to buy 2 bundles 22 sheets each. They don't deliver to residential. If I figure that right, 44 sheets is about 1.5 ton. I have more prices if you are interested in what they quoted me.

Have you tried dealing with MacBeath Hardwood in Edinburg (they only sell hardwood supposedly) and their plywood comes out of their Berkley CA location. Their prices where reasonable on Baltic, but shipping kills the deal for me.

John

John

[harold_weber]

John, I've tried MacBeath twice, but both times what I wanted was only stocked in their California warehouse, so I've given up on them.

Brands Lumber (the only independent lumber yard left in Columbus nowdays) sells Baltic birch by the 5x5 sheet a the following 22 Feb 2006 prices:
6mm=$16.69,
12mm=$22.49,
18mm=$34.39.
I cut two sheets of this material last December for a guy and my memory is that its only plugged in one side. Their phone is 812-379-9566 if you want to call them and get them to go out to the warehouse and check what grade they are selling. Columbus may be kind of far for you, does Black Lumber over in Bloomington carry this stuff?

[jseiler]

I've friends in columbus so I'm there several times a month. The last time I was in Black's
they didn't have anything that exotic, but I haven't been in there in a couple of years. I might have to give them a check again. There is a place I found in spencer indiana called plywood king. I'm going to check them out on Friday.

Wow, prices and availability vary.
I appreciate the info.

John

[jseiler]

Mark -
I bought a sheet of the Menard's BB ply just to have something to play with. I got them to yank down a few sheets and picked one sheet that had multiple patches on one side, one one on the other (that being the best one of the bunch). Definately not cabinet grade. I couldn't find the mill marks in the store (just must have overlooked them). It was labelled II/III, which I beleive translates to BB/C. It did have russian markings though.

I won't be buying from them again until they get better stuff.

John

[serge]

I am interested in this kind of plywood in the texas area, since I cannot find it in Mexico and would like to import it. I have been working with some but the only kind is 5x5. I am looking for some kind of plywood with a good cabinet quality, is there any other kind that somebody would recomend?

[neal@lasertechalaska.com]

Try www.naply.com (http://www.naply.com) in Los Angeles. They sell Russian baltic birch ply and Euro Ply which is a higher quality birch ply. They stock various sizes and thicknesses. Talk to Mark Long 888-888-9818

[neal@lasertechalaska.com]

I see NAPLY has a Dallas warehouse.

[jamesgilliam]

Serge, Check out Hogan Hardwood in San Antonio. They carry the 5x5 Baltic, and 4x8 in Baltic and other grades. They should be able to help you. I go to the one in Houston, but I'm sure the one in SA will carrt the same stock, or be able to get it. James

[jseiler]

Harold-

I bought some sheets from Brands Saturday. The 18mm they had was II/III (BB/C). I picked out a few nicer sheets, but it wasn't all that nice. The nice stuff they had was the 6mm. Looked good on both faces, but it was almost as expensive as their 12mm. I did get a beautiful black walnut board and a hickory board from them.

In a couple weeks, I'll have to take a trek down to cincinatti to check out Paxton.

As Bill P. noted above, maybe a bot co-op buy would be helpful.

John

[ed_conley]

John:

I haven't read all your posts yet so this may have already been suggested, but call a higher volume cabinet shop and find out where they are getting their Baltic Birch. You probably know this already, but its used in drawer construction for high end cabinetry. If the cabinet shop understands you are not competing with him, you may be able to "piggyback" off of his purchases or at least find out where his supply source is. Good luck.