Thread: Aussie plywood

Ahh yes Mik, the never ending cycle of our buying habits, the same thing in the Air Cond industry, we sold good quality at reasonable prices until the chinese brands flooded the market and now we complain because the dirt cheap stuff dosen't last and has no back up service.... we really do need to look at how we equate value for money sometimes don't we

Originally Posted by PAR

Have you folks contacted this outfit? They carry Joubert BS 1088, the stuff we drool over here in the states. What is shipping like from Tasmania for you?

Denman Marine - Wooden Boat Builders using Traditional and M

G'day PAR, while trawling the net I came across this that may be of interest to you Boat Builder Central - products It is exactly the stuff you have been drooling about and it appears to be in your backyard so to speak. On the page it says that it was updated: November 27 2007 so of course I don't know if they are still in business now.

regards Harry

Originally Posted by Boatmik

To be fair to the plywood guys ... customers have not been prepared to front up and buy the more expensive stuff.

About ten years ago there was very nice quality gaboon available fairly universally at higher prices.

BUT consumers kept swapping their purchasing as cheaper stuff came out of Asia. The guys that were bringing in the quality stuff lost the volume in their market, so it was uneconomical to bring in containerloads that probably wouldn't be sold.
<snip, snippety snip snip...>

MIK

Hmm, hmm, and hmm...

Well, having done one boat in quite good but a bit heavy "Pacific maple" ply (a PDRacer) and the sheets of 6 mm "PM" already on hand for a Goat, I think it's time to cough up for the "real" stuff and give Bruynzeel a call for the plywood (3 sheets of 4 mm gaboon) for the Eureka, which is currently vying with the Goat for my next-to-be-built boat.

I like the fact that someone (Joubert) is prepared to whack their moniker on the plywood, i.e., be responsible for the product that they manufacture! Although to be fair the very nice-looking Indonesian plywood that I've got for the Goat has that mill's name and address on it.

I'm going to have to get that set of roof racks soon: I know that Bruynzeel will deliver in Sydney metro area, but I'd rather put the deliver charge towards something that a. I can pick up the ply with, and b. I can use to cart my boats about on after ;).

I'm starting to twitch - the 'Duck is getting close to getting wet...

hi Alex

Just to clarify, Bruynzeel is now NOT the good stuff, the general consensus in here seems to lean to the fact it is an inferior product. Now I did say that I used to buy from these guys, but that was a long time ago when they were selling a top product, namely the "Bruynzeel" brand made in Holland. If you are after top quality Gaboon, may I suggest you contact Andrew Denman in Tassie or give the guys out at Trend Timbers a call as they have a top French Gaboon as well.

Harry

Originally Posted by HaroldS

hi Alex

Just to clarify, Bruynzeel is now NOT the good stuff, the general consensus in here seems to lean to the fact it is an inferior product. Now I did say that I used to buy from these guys, but that was a long time ago when they were selling a top product, namely the "Bruynzeel" brand made in Holland. If you are after top quality Gaboon, may I suggest you contact Andrew Denman in Tassie or give the guys out at Trend Timbers a call as they have a top French Gaboon as well.

Harry

I called Trend only a couple of weeks ago. They had no stocks of marine ply at all. I bought from Andrew at Denman Marine. It will cost you a bit more for freight, but well worth the extra for a guaranteed product that the GIS deserves.

Originally Posted by HaroldS

hi Alex

Just to clarify, Bruynzeel is now NOT the good stuff, the general consensus in here seems to lean to the fact it is an inferior product. Now I did say that I used to buy from these guys, but that was a long time ago when they were selling a top product, namely the "Bruynzeel" brand made in Holland. If you are after top quality Gaboon, may I suggest you contact Andrew Denman in Tassie or give the guys out at Trend Timbers a call as they have a top French Gaboon as well.

Harry

Hi Harry,

Trust me to get hold of the wrong end of the stick! Last time I rang Trend (about a year ago) and asked about gaboon ply and spar-grade oregon, I felt that I was grumped at a bit by the guy who answered the phone - or at least gave he impression that my potential custom wasn't worth much, so I never rang back. And still really don't want to ring them again, even though Ian Philips (BoatCraft Pacific) suggested that I call them. Maybe the guy was having a bad day - but he lost a customer. I'll try Mr Denman.

Cheers,
Alex.

Originally Posted by woodeneye

I called Trend only a couple of weeks ago. They had no stocks of marine ply at all. I bought from Andrew at Denman Marine. It will cost you a bit more for freight, but well worth the extra for a guaranteed product that the GIS deserves.

Hi Bruce,

Ian and Scott picked out some good "PM" sheets for the Goat - I'll check back with BoatCraft again and see what they've got, as well as checking out Andrew Denman's enterprise. I'd order the stuff from Duck Flat, but the freight from SA is almost more than the cost of the plywood itself. Why am I getting that sinking feeling about supply again? <sigh> Must mean that I should be concentrating on finishing Wood Duck ;).

Cheers,
Alex.

Originally Posted by AlexN

Hi Bruce,

Ian and Scott picked out some good "PM" sheets for the Goat - I'll check back with BoatCraft again and see what they've got, as well as checking out Andrew Denman's enterprise. I'd order the stuff from Duck Flat, but the freight from SA is almost more than the cost of the plywood itself. Why am I getting that sinking feeling about supply again? <sigh> Must mean that I should be concentrating on finishing Wood Duck .

Cheers,
Alex.

I may be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that Boatcraft Pacific supply Duck Flat anyway, so it's the same stuff. Boatcraft still had stocks of "Pink" ply on special a couple of weeks ago. If Andrew didn't have the Joubert, I would have bought it.

Originally Posted by woodeneye

I may be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that Boatcraft Pacific supply Duck Flat anyway, so it's the same stuff. Boatcraft still had stocks of "Pink" ply on special a couple of weeks ago. If Andrew didn't have the Joubert, I would have bought it.

Hmm... Boatcraft's special is still on.

I'll contact Andrew tomorrow - did I read that he "offers discounts to Forum members", or just hopefully imagine that?

A.

Duckflat get their pacific maple from Boatcraft some of the time, but they also get other plywoods from other sources depending on available price and quality.

Michael

Here in Maine we are all bumming big time since Shelman went out of business. It seems that most of us figured out that the Shelmarine line of Okoume was superior to anything out there. Now we are stuck with Joubert and there seems to be no alternative. I am routing kits and making the transition to Joubert and have noticed specific things about joubert I don't like:

--it doesn't plane like butter like the Shelman did
--it is slightly thinner
--it isn't nearly as pretty varnished
--the plys are smoother as you go layer to layer
--they seem to route the same, so far.
--the grain in the Joubert is more coarse. I'd love to know if Joubert checks more over time...only one way to find out.

The other stuff out there that our supplier is waiting for is Italian -- they call it Toro. Sounds great.

Clint

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Duckflat get their pacific maple from Boatcraft some of the time, but they also get other plywoods from other sources depending on available price and quality.

Michael

MIK - I'm about to weigh Boatcraft's "PM" 6 mm ply (nominally for the Goat, as you know) on the bathroom scales (which are out by 150 grams, +/-). I may even do all five whole sheets (the sixth has been raided for 'Duck parts) - this will give some quantitative data on BC's ply ;).

Originally Posted by Compass Project

Here in Maine we are all bumming big time since Shelman went out of business. It seems that most of us figured out that the Shelmarine line of Okoume was superior to anything out there. Now we are stuck with Joubert and there seems to be no alternative.

Maybe we'll get lucky over here in Oz. This reminds me of the "fun" I have sourcing oboe reed making cane - also from the south of France (where it grows endemically, btw). The first order that I made - as a student before getting to the Con - was fantastic: nice, golden "butter" yellow flecked with dark brown mottle, cane worked like said butter, and made good reeds, even for a rank beginner. Subsequent orders from that particular company went steadily down hill. Fellow oboists that I have whined and complained to about that since have all said much the same thing: they sent the best quality to get the sucker hooked, then sent rubbish. Although that doesn't quite gel: even suckers wake up and smell the sewers. Another viewpoint was that the French and other Europeans got all the good stuff, and everyone else got sent the dregs.

Looking back, I think I was just plain lucky to have got the batch that I did: it may have been meant for one of the top European players and I got it by mistake - and one of the said top European players got a boxful of rubbish!

I'm looking forward with great curiosity to see what appears when I finally am able to order some gaboon ply :).

Cheers,
Alex.

Originally Posted by AlexN

MIK - I'm about to weigh Boatcraft's "PM" 6 mm ply (nominally for the Goat, as you know) on the bathroom scales (which are out by 150 grams, +/-). I may even do all five whole sheets (the sixth has been raided for 'Duck parts) - this will give some quantitative data on BC's ply ;).

Yes, well, given that the RH is so high at the moment, both inside the workshop (hot water heater overflow overflowing) and out, with one corner of each sheet soaked, I am going to have to wait a bit until things have dried out a bit.

In fact, I should really be comparing similar-thickness gaboon stored in my workshop for the same period of time, and the weight expressed as density (weight per unit volume) since the gaboon sheets are bigger than the PM sheets, and also give RH and/or measured moisture content of the plywood at time of measuring. And the same should apply to everyone else comparing plywood weights - if one wants decent data from which to draw a valid-ish conclusion, that is. And lots of data points to boot, too, of course ;).