When was plywood first used

Samuel Bentham, a British mechanical engineer made a patents application in , what he described as a concept to laminate layers of veneers by gluing them together to come up with a thick layer.

This is what is today known as plywood. During his time, veneers were rift sawn, quarter sawn and flat sawn, pieces that were cut into different angles, thereby limiting in length and width. It was then that plywood planks started being used to support easel paintings, a replacement to the conventional cardboard or canvas.

While plywood may seem to be an easy choice to make, there are different variations, meaning that you will need to do some research to ensure you are purchasing the right one. Note; the different types have variations in terms of ply, size and other factors, all of which determine their application. The three major types include:. Hardwood plywood planks have layers of maple, walnut, birch, oak and other hardwoods. These are glued together for a strong finish and are suitable for use in sporting equipment, furniture, musical instruments and any other item that requires a strong frame.

This plywood is carved from redwood, cedar, pine and other softwoods. Wish I could buy my wood where they buy it. If you want spruce I usually don't, but assume you do it's cheaper to buy a "block" table at IKEA and sand the coating off.. Add a comment.

Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Graphus Graphus Just to add to Graphus' insights: Patents for plywood show up at the beginning of the 19th century and plywood as we know it with thin sheets of wood show up around s. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta.

Now live: A fully responsive profile. Version labels for answers. Related 1. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. It took the selling skills of Gus Bartells of Elliot Bay Plywood in Seattle to move to the next step, talking car manufacturers into using plywood for their running boards.

By , however, there were 17 plywood mills in the Pacific Northwest and production was million square feet. James Nevin, a chemist at Harbor Plywood Corporation in Aberdeen, developed the first fully waterproof adhesive which opened up new markets for plywood. Unfortunately, there were no standards in the industry and product quality and grading techniques varied widely from shop to shop. Trying to protect their industry from standards emerging under the National Recovery Act, industry leaders met in Portland on May 17, , to adopt the first trade practices for plywood production.

Contentiousness was overcome within a month and the Douglas Fir Plywood Association held its first meeting in Tacoma on June 13, In , laws were amended to permit registration of industry wide trademarks and the FHA accepted the standards for both interior and exterior plywood, converting a specialty product into a commodity.