Birch is abundant in North America, especially in the northern United States and Canada, and while it isn’t a superior furniture-grade hardwood, it’s a great one. It is durable and appealing, it takes stain well and it’s affordable. Birch plywood is also a favorite material for making cabinets, benches and tables.

Birch Characteristics

Yellow and sweet palace are two of the best-known species, and while yellow birch is a bit more difficult, both are comparable in hardness to oak, walnut and other domestic hardwoods. Birch is workable and doesn’t nick or gouge easily, which can be two qualities which woodworkers like. Since it’s a close grain, it stains evenly, but its becoming yellow to tan shade looks attractive even without a stain.

Birch Uses

The blond tones of yellow birch allow it to be a good stand-in for walnut, although its color variations and characteristic grain texture make it easily distinguishable. With red heartwood and sometimes almost white sapwood, these variations are largely absent in Baltic birch plywood, a construction material from Europe that many manufacturers use to make paneling and cabinets. Since Birch is powerful, holds screws well and is affordable, furniture makers use it for bracing and other structural components of furniture as frequently as they perform for its visible parts.

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