
A piece of hardwood has many uses in furniture making. However, certain wood varieties may work better for a particular craft. For example, ash wood is excellent for making baseball bats and oars, while mahogany is a perfect material for making wood paneling, flooring, and boats. Oak is ideal for furniture and cabinetry. What about birch wood? Is it a good material for making cabinets and furniture?
This article will tell you about the uses of birch wood. Keep reading.
What Is Birch Wood?
Birch wood is a product of a birch tree, a deciduous hardwood tree with thin leaves. It belongs to the genus Betula in the Betulaceae family, which has a closer relationship with the oak-beech family known as Fagaceae.
Betula genus is a mostly short-lived species found in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, where the climates are temperate and boreal. Most species of birch are small to medium-sized shrubs or trees.
The bark of the birch species has longitudinal and horizontal lenticels, which usually deviate into papery, thin plates. Their leaves could be stipulate, serrate (single or double), alternating, petiolate, or feather-veined. The barks are in hues of white, gray, yellow, silver, and black, depending on the species.
Birch Wood’s Characteristics, Properties, Color & Texture
Birch is a popular wood material in furniture because it is cheaper than other hardwood types. When we say cheap, it does not mean it has an inferior quality. Furniture makers can make the most of birch wood as its qualities are exceptional, even if inexpensive. Here are the characteristics of birch wood.
Harder Than Oaks
Although birch is an oak relative, it has a harder texture, making it an ideal cabinetry material. A sawn birch timber makes high-quality plywood and paneling for kitchen cabinets. Birch plywood has an enduring quality at an affordable price. Large stocks of birch plywood are readily available in hardware and home improvement stores.
High Tensile Strength
Birch possesses high tensile strength, which makes nailing, gluing, and screwing easy to perform. The cabinet industry finds birch a perfect wood for making kitchen cabinets because it can withstand strong forces and damage from harsh environmental conditions in the long run.
Satin Texture
Birch wood has fine grains, pale color, and satin texture making it easy to absorb fine polish. These are qualities for ripple figuring, which helps increase the value of furniture, cabinet, and veneer making. Some birch species’ dark lines and dark streaks add aesthetic appeal to the wood.
Hardness
Birch is harder than other hardwoods like oaks, making it easy to form using power tools. However, working with birch wood could be problematic if using hand tools. The wood should be away from the elements to protect it from damage due to environmental factors.
Strong & Resilient
Birch lumber is resilient against shock and environmental elements, such as thunderstorms, strong winds, and other forces of nature. As a building material, it has an excellent crushing strength even during a strong quake. Since it can hold screws, bolts, and nails, it guarantees that your house does not quickly tear apart when calamities occur in your area.
Inexpensive
Birch is an inexpensive type of hardwood that has superior quality. For your DIY woodworking project, you can stain the birch wood to make them look like expensive woods. You have to sand it first before applying stains.
What Are the Uses of Birch Wood?
Birch wood is a popular material in furniture making and kitchen cabinetry because of its durability and high tensile strength. It can hold screws, nails, and glue more than other hardwood types. Here are the uses of birch wood:
Birch Plywood
Birch plywood is a good recommendation if you are looking for plywood for your woodworking project. Birch plywood is lightweight but heavy-duty material for furniture making. The plywood is a product of birch veneer laminations.
It is stable, although not ideal for exterior walling. Skateboards made from birch plywood are flexible to ride even if it is durable. Model aircraft manufacturers use thin grades with veneer laminated birch plywood.
Furniture & Cabinets
Birch wood is an excellent wood material for making high-end furniture, desks, and kitchen cabinets due to its fantastic color. The birch heartwood is reddish brown, and the sapwood is almost white. Some furniture makers do not apply stains to their projects to preserve their natural color and beauty.
Speaker Cabinets
Baltic birch is one of the popular hardwoods in manufacturing speaker cabinets. This hardwood type creates a higher power sound and larger amplitude or natural resonance. The high and low frequencies are hard to reproduce in a common type of wood.
Crafts
Birch wood is ideal for woodworking projects like toy parts, paper, and toothpicks because it is odorless. Toothpick manufacturers prefer birch wood because it has an adequate stiffness but is not so stiff when a person uses it.
The spiral-cut birch logs are cut into thin sheets before they undergo chopping, milling, cutting, and bleaching into wooden toothpicks.
Structural Support
Birch lumber provides structural support in building a house, cottage, or villa. The lumber has many applications according to its cuts, such as flooring, siding, moldings, doors, jams, joinery, shutters, and trusses.
Working with Birch Wood
Working with Birch wood is easy to handle due to its outstanding finishing properties. The close grain pattern of birch wood looks smooth and appealing even with only two to three coatings of wood stain. Sanding, polishing, staining, gluing, nailing, and screwing are much easier to apply than other types of hardwood.
Other Uses of Birch Wood
Birch wood is not only good for woodworking and carpentry; it has other uses. The sap and oil extracts of the birch tree are ingredients in making fragrances and essential oils. It has medicinal properties too.
Other benefits of birch bark include tongue depressors, paper pulp, and toys. For centuries, birch wood has been a part of religious rites, and it is one of the sources of food and firewood.
Possible Issues & Problems When Working with Birch Wood in Your Woodworking Projects
Can I Use Birch Wood as Outdoor Furniture?
Any solid wood is not ideal for bringing them outside. If you display them in your yard, Birch wood furniture with a protective coating can get rotten due to pests and harsh environmental conditions. Yellow birch wood is prone to damage and termite infestation.
Is it Easy to Distinguish a Yellow Birch Wood?
A yellow birch wood’s unique color makes it easy to identify due to its light sapwood and luster-free texture. It is more evident even if you pair it with curl or wavy grain. If you want authentic yellow birch wood, get it from a reputable furniture seller.
What is the Best Alternative to Birch Wood?
If you cannot find this hardwood, you can opt for maple. It is durable and has attractive color. Yellow birch wood does not have an alternative, but oak can be a good substitute due to its light shade. You may choose cherry wood furniture if you like reddish hues and distinctive grain patterns.
Is Birch Wood Resistant to Water?
No, birch wood is not water resistant, even hardwood. It can still rot when they are in direct contact with a damp floor for longer. Birch wood has no waterproofing ability, so it is still prone to rotting due to the air’s moisture content.
Is Birch Superior to Oak?
Oak is slightly harder than birch tree if you base it on its rating on the Janka hardness scale. Birch tree got a rating of 1260, while a Sweet Birch has a higher rating on Janka at 1470. Sweet Birch is a less popular hardwood. Red oak got a rating of 1290, while White Oak has a Janka scale rating of 1360.
Conclusion
Birch lumber has many uses in the construction and furniture industries. The yellow birch sapwood is appealing to homeowners because of its unique color. Birch wood is less expensive than other hardwood, making it a famous building and furniture material. It has many finishing properties that make your woodworking DIY projects much more manageable. If you plan to furnish your home with birch furniture, buy it from a reliable woodworking shop or retailer.