| No, it depends on the application. There's a reason it's still called "solid wood". If you look, most plywoods are "whitewood" or whatever is cheapest (most softwoods are incredibly strong as the term is just a synonym for coniferous). If you compare apples-to-apples -- Baltic Birch (or similar products with only birch layers) to solid birch... The plywood doesn't have any noticeable wood movement; The plywood can have fasteners and glue in any face (unlike solid where endgrain must be joined); The solid wood usually has much better stiffness; The solid wood is limited to shape and size by nature of trees; plywood can be found in larger sizes. Good wooden chairs are impossible to find commercially now. The wood from the seat needs to be very wet and a wood that doesn't split easily, and the wood for the legs needs to be riven and dryer than what its final environment will be (so as close to 0% moisture as possible, at least <10%). This is so that the legs expand a bit into the seat, which will continue to shrink, and make an incredibly tight fit. But it's not conducive at all to mass-production, which is why you often see them nailed, bracketed, bolted, etc, all sorts of dirty tricks. Woodworking is a rabbit-hole you might find compelling or infuriating. You can't unlearn the knowledge when you do. |