Thread: Birch / Birch Ply or Canadian Maple for Skateboard?

My board (when I was a youngster) was made of Rock Maple. It was imported from the US. Can't really help with your problem though.

Originally Posted by rhancock

My nephew has been making skateboards from plywood, but would like to progress to better quality timber. He asked me if I can tell him where to find Birch. Here's his email:

The wood I'm after is sheets of 1/8th of an inch Baltic Birch, or Canadian Maple. The Birch is preferable, and the size of the ply is variable but 1/8th of an inch is best for the job.

A quick search brings up some suggestions that Baltic Birch Ply is an American term and hard to find in Australia, and that Paulownia is used locally for surf boards - would Paulownia demonstrate the same characteristics?

Paulownia is used to make Kite boards and there is a move to use it in Snowboards. These boards use the paulownia as the core and cover the timber in epoxy to allow for it to sustain the knocks it gets in use. The kite boards have a core of timber 15 mm thick into which is routed the shape of the boards surface. As you don't need to shape skate boards surface then that make it easier. Paulownia can be thickenessed to 3 mm if you want to laminate up the board.

Whitewood

I have read about boards being made from hoop veneers, but you also need some sort of composite reinforcement to address flex issues.
All the best decks I’ve ever ridden were Canadian mapleJ