Re: What kind of plywood?

Posted by Moe on Nov 26, 2006

these are the main things to look for when shoping for ply. springines, hardness/densety, colouring, watter absorbation and glue qaulety. the last two only come into play if there's a hole in the epoxy. the reason one uses marine plywood is primary as a reasurence so that if the protective layer of epoxy and paint/varnish is punctured the boat won't be ruiend all you have to do is take to you're workshop dry out the wet wood and repair it with epoxy and varnish/paint. if the outer layer is punctured and the core is not made of marine grade ply it will absorb aloat more watter alot faster and the glue wil start to dissolve. best case senario you only have the area around the hole to replase worst case the entire piece of plywood will expand and fall apart as the watter gets sucked into the wood. also a small hole that is quickly repaired could start developing som kind of rot if it's not thoroly dried. but if you keep the watter out no problem.

Sibirian larch (sibirsk lerk) and center wood from norwegian pine (kjerneved fra furu/malm furu) are both availeball in larg qaunteties in Norway but they don't make ply from center wood and i don't know about the larch. Redwood though not common in norway is also capabal of being exposed to watter without rotting.

birch is a weary dense wood but it will rott if exposed to watter. birch ply will probably be to stiff as well but i haven't any expirience working it so i'm not sure.

the meranti that mic used is the cheapest, most worthless piece of trash plywood you can by in norway and is not recomendebal.

if you find any of the top three in ply they might be worth a try other then that there are other marine plywoods availebal and many of them are good enough for kajakk building as long as you do a good jobb on the epoxying bit.

however okume is the best so if you're going for qaulety chose okume. however it's a bit difficult to find in norway so you might have to look around a bit if you're in oslo i know west system has some.

appolegies for the spelling im dyslectic

In Response to: Re: What kind of plywood? by Mic on Nov 15, 2006

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