The Art of ApplePly Plywood

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ApplePly is a product that causes some confusion in the woodworking community, causing some people to view it as either a misnomer or a joke. The name seems to imply that it is a plywood product made from the wood of the apple tree, with plywood parts, but that’s not what it is.

What is ApplyePly Plywood?

Although it is a hardwood plywood product, the core veneers are made of birch, much like Baltic birch plywood, rather than apple. It can be considered the American equivalent of premium-quality Baltic birch plywood from the nations surrounding the Baltic Sea.

The name ApplePly is a trade name and a marketing ploy. The first and biggest manufacturer of ApplePly is in the state of Oregon, which is known for its apples. The regional identification of the product parallels the idea of something being as “American as apple pie,” helping to identify ApplePly as a purely American product.

Differences Between ApplePly and Other Kinds of Plywood

ApplePly and Baltic Birch have much in common and are used similarly. Birch is a fine-grained hardwood with a straight grain. This creates a high-quality plywood core with few voids and a clean end grain.

Unlike other plywood products, ApplePly’s core veneers are only 1/16” thick, making for many thick core veneers. This is a structural advantage, helping the panel’s stability and flatness. But it also adds to the wood’s aesthetic appeal, providing the signature edge banding.

It is made without urea-formaldehyde adhesives, eliminating the concern with formaldehyde outgassing from the plywood. This is a positive selling point for children’s furniture made from ApplePly.

Like Baltic Birch, ApplePly was first used for architectural and industrial applications or fixtures where an industrial style was appropriate. This included workbenches, reception desks, and store fixtures, especially for stores selling upscale casual clothing. It is available in thicknesses ranging from ¼” up to 1-1/2”, in 1/8” increments up to 3/4” and ¼” increments thereafter.

ApplePly Plywood is a Favorite For Many

In recent times, ApplePly has gained prominence among hobbyists and woodworkers, especially in making furniture with the same industrial style. The attractive edges have a high color contrast between the long and end grain but few voids. It gives the furniture an attractive look while saving labor on doing projects. ApplePly is a favorite for building cabinets and benches in the workshop and children’s and casual furniture.

Appleply stairs, Independent Woodworks

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Benefits of ApplePly

One of the benefits of ApplePly is that birch is a very stable wood, although not a particularly hard one for a hardwood. The Janka value of yellow birch is 950 lbs, which puts it just below ash.

Compared with quality hardwood, sugar maple has a Janka value of 1,320 lbs, and red oak has one of 1,570 lbs. So, Appleply isn’t highly resistant to dents and scratches unless it has a surface veneer of denser hardwood.

Any cross-laid plywood is stable to start with. Making it out of a stable wood stock increases the dimensional stability of the finished project. ApplePly hardwood plywood also comes from the mill extremely flat, partially because it is virtually void-free. There is also very little warping with ApplePly.

Compared to softwood plywood, the cut edge of ApplePly is much cleaner and more attractive. Whereas the edge of softwood plywood would have to be filled to make a smooth surface, filling in the edge grain, the edge of ApplePly can be sanded and finished, providing an attractive, “industrial” finish. The edge appearance is one of the most popular characteristics of ApplePly and is often why it is chosen for a particular project.

While the core veneer layers of ApplePly panels are made of birch, the face and reverse veneers often aren’t. Rather, ApplePly sheets are faced with various hardwoods, including cherry, maple, walnut, oak, and teak. Most of these are plain sliced rather than radially sliced, providing the same grain pattern that would appear on solid wood boards.

ApplePly Purchase

The one drawback to ApplePly is finding it to purchase. Purchases of ApplePly online require that the customer pay for the shipping. Unless a lot of plywood is purchased simultaneously, the cost per sheet is rather high.

However, a growing network of distributors selling ApplePly, mostly lumberyards, specializes in three-dimensional hardwood lumber, boards, and plywood. A map of these dealers can be found on the States Industries website. States Industries is the inventor of ApplePly. It is usually priced at the bottom end of the pricing range for three-dimensional hardwood lumber and plywood panels.