As part of a back-channel discussion with Shawn Baker, the question of "quality" of the marine plywood now available came up. The following excerpt from a "Marine Plywood FAQ" (http://www.boat-links.com/plyfaq.html ) seems authoritative. > All okume plywoods are not equal. I have worked with three kinds: > > Brunzeel -- the best and most expensive; smoothest faces, ultrathin glue lines, no knots on exterior plys, Lloyds certified to be made under rigorous standards > > Shelman -- almost as good as brunzeel, rare 1/4 - 3/8" diameter knots in face plys, also Lloyds certified > > Israeli-made (don't remember the name) has a 3" diameter blue label -- frequent knots in face ply, some quite large; relatively thick glue lines; center plys have tons of knots, crazy grain, and multiple pieces; no Lloyds certification. > > All three are "okume," but depending on from whom and how many sheets you buy (volume discounts usually start at 10 sheets) Brunzeel can be twice as expensive as the Israeli. All three are better than softwood plywood in my opinion. If I were finishing bright, which I do very rarely, I try to use Brunzeel. For general purposes Shelman is fine. The Israeli-made sheets will do fine for most everything, but if subjected to tight curves or hard twisting you can get some collapsing of the center ply and delamination of the surface ply in tension due the grain irregularities around the larger knots. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
And not only are there three kinds of okoume, there are two different grades of marine that I know of--BS 1088 and BS 6566. BS stands for "British Standard" 1088 has A-AA grade faces, 6566 has A-B grade faces. Both are guaranteed void-free with solid glue lines. Shawn Dave Kruger wrote: >As part of a back-channel discussion with Shawn Baker, the question of >"quality" of the marine plywood now available came up. >...different grades of Okoume... >Brunzeel... >Shelman... >"Israeli-made" *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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