first wood order

[monradon]

I am getting ready to place my first order for portrait wood. It looks like most of you use 1/4" wood right . Going to go with the birch for now because most of you seem to like it for cutting and detail work .

[GrayBeard Phil]

Just to be specific (and you may already know this anyway) :

there is a difference between ordinary birch solid wood, birch plywood, and the favorite of so many, Baltic Birch Plywood. Baltic Birch plywood is a specific brand name for plywood made to a Russian / Baltic Sea region export specification made by a specific company.

Depending on the pattern you choose, solid wood may be come very weak by your cutting and break. While this does not happen all that often, as a newbie you should be aware that it does happen.

Regular birch plywood has some voids and loose knots in the interior veneers of the plywoods. When you cut your portrait, you are removing a significant percentage of the plywood. You just may come across an area where a void in the interior wood which leads to a breakage. Again, it doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.

BB plywood has very, very little voids in the interior veneers. Yes, it does have the 'plywood' stigma when you are finished. But that is life.

Some newbies find the frustration of spending so much time working on a portrait and then having it break is just too much for them.

Phil

[f250]

Phil has some very good comments for you. I once cut a very complicated fret dragon out of solid wood. The internal pressures in the wood were such that shortly after I finished cutting it, the stupid thing twisted and exploded into a million pieces. Carefully choose what you use for each project, but I think Baltic birch plywood will do you well.