wood · full record

Birch plywood

Finnish birch in alternating plies: the Lab's daily material; clean laser cuts, a handsome exposed edge, and an honest two-sided carbon story.

also called Birch ply · Baltic birch

The numbers

Density: 680 kg/m3
Thickness range: 4–50 mm
Panel sizes: 1220 × 2440 · 1250 × 2500 · 1500 × 3000 · 2000 × 3000 mm
Formaldehyde class: Class E1
Bond class: EN 314-2 class 3 (exterior)

No embodied-carbon figure is shown. We do not yet hold one we are licensed to publish, and an unsourced number is worse than none.

What works it

CNC route

Laser cut

In the library

17 variants on the catalogue · held as sheet · 9–18 mm

Machines that work it

Thin sheets of Finnish birch, glued in alternating grain: the material half the Lab's projects are born in. It cuts cleanly on the laser, machines beautifully, and its edge is so handsome most makers leave it exposed. Its carbon story is genuinely two-sided: the wood banks carbon as it grows, the glue and transport spend some of it back: we show both halves rather than pretending one away.

Tips from the Lab

The laser leaves a caramelised brown edge. That is either the look you want or the reason to mask the face. · laser
Take a climb-cut on the final CNC pass to leave the top veneer clean. · CNC
Score the face veneer along the cut line with a knife before hand-sawing, or the grain tears out. · hand tools
Birch dust is hardwood dust. Extraction is not tidiness: it is a health control. · COSHH

Products

Brands of this material the Lab holds or has worked with.

Riga Wood
Latvijas Finieris
WISA
UPM
Manufacturer

Compare with

Editorial pairings: the comparisons worth making, on aligned scales where the figures allow one.

Birch plywood vs through colour fibreboard→

Come and work with it

The Lab holds this material. Visit to see it in person and talk to a Technologist about working it.

Visit the Lab →See the machines →Browse the library →

Sources

Manufacturer datasheets
Datasheet VALUES cited as facts with a link to source. Imagery all-rights-reserved by default — photograph our own swatches; manufacturer imagery only via per-manufacturer written permission.

Every value on this page names the source it came from and how firmly it is known. Where we hold no figure we are licensed to publish, we show none.