Beautiful to work with, particularly the thinner stuff for the horns.
But so heavy...
I've been going off the reservation experimenting with other plywoods as well.
The Italian poplar we get here is as high-quality as the BB, but almost half the weight.
It has half-thickness veneers on the outside. Not the full-thickness that Bill recommends, but not the thin film veneers that the Chinese-made hardwood ply has either.
More resonant, I had to increase the bracing a bit.
I just got in a beatuful sheet of WISA III Special spruce plywood. It is also lightweight (not quite as light as poplar), and a quarter the price of BB.
Very good glue, void-free, and the recommended minimum of five equal plys.
Because of the five equal plys it's stiffer lengthwise so I'll pay attention to the grain direction when cutting.
The faces are full of knots, but they are well-filled. I'll spend a little time with my good friend, Bondo.
Haven't tried it yet, anyone have experience with Spruce?
Is the Doug Fir particularly light? Hard to find in England.
SethRocksYou wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:50 pm So... Baltic Birch. Differences I noticed, the saw seems to cut it with a little less effort, the saw dust is fluffy and less granular than douglas fir. Other than that, seems about the same, cutting wise. It's smoother in the hand and doesn't seem to splinter much, if at all. It's only slightly warped, nearly unnoticeable. Overall, I'm enjoying working with it so far.