European Birch (Betula pendula)

Birch trees are good peelers, which is why birch is one of the best-known timbers for plywood. Apart from the fact that it can be easily sliced, another reason for such widespread use in plywood is that birch is a hardwood that is dense, strong and straight with a fine, pale brown colour that means it can easily be stained and finished to fit varied applications. It is its visual blandness that allows it to be so adaptable and to be stained to look like other, heavier woods, such as maple or cherry, making it extremely versatile in designs where light-coloured wood is required.

Birch trees were among the first to recolonize the rocky, ice-scoured landscapes after the glaciers of the last ice age receded; therefore it is often referred to as a pioneer species. The silver birch – another name for European birch – is distributed throughout almost all of Europe and Asia Minor. The downy birch, one of the very few native trees of Iceland, also occurs throughout much of Europe and north Asia.

There are many species of birch, which vary slightly in look and properties. The wood of yellow birch and sweet birch is heavy, hard and strong, while that of paper birch is lighter, and less hard, strong and stiff. All birches have a fine, uniform texture. Paper birch is easy to work with hand tools; sweet birch and yellow birch are difficult to work with hand tools and difficult to glue, but easily machined.

Image: Four Birds Table by Simon Mount