Comments on: Paper Birch

By: Curt Harvey

Curt Harvey — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 18:34:42 +0000

In reply to Eliot. Take a slice of paper birch with you when you go lumber shopping. Yellow birch has a denser/darker end grain than paper birch. Easy to tell when you hold them side by side.

By: Curt Harvey

Curt Harvey — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 18:33:10 +0000

In reply to John. Yellow birch has a denser/darker end grain than paper birch.

By: Eliot

Eliot — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 22:02:00 +0000

In reply to John.

Very much in the same boat, using birch for structural and hoping for yellow, but no way to find out what I am getting. The weights overlap so that’s not reliable.
Sure would love to find out how to separate yellow from rest.
Help?

By: Rob Wahl

Rob Wahl — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:48:23 +0000

I’m letting out to learn how to work paper birch for fine furniture since it grows abundantly where I live and with proper finishing does look rather attractive. Paper birch, however, is clearly not a substitute for yellow birch and there’s no comparison. If the dealer is reputable and the price is more than $5.00 a board foot it has to be yellow birch or they are swindling you. Rough or S1S paper birch should cost $2.50 to $4.00 a board foot. For S2S paper birch, you might go as high as $4.50, that’s it. Yellow birch is a march larger tree as well, so if you see endgrain rings such as you see above, ask some pointed questions. In summary, my opinion is if you trust your supplier and they say “Birch”, they mean yellow Birch.

By: John

John — Sat, 23 Jun 2018 02:47:06 +0000

I noticed that paper birch is significantly softer and weaker than yellow birch or sweet birch. Since my hardwood dealer does not specify the kind of birch, how can I avoid buying the inferior (for my application) paper birch? I’m not sure how to distinguish paper- , sweet- , and yellow-birch.