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Rude Osolnik plywood bowls.....

Odie

Odie

Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
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Hello @Joe Sheble ..... :)

re: https://www.aawforum.org/community/media/plywood.20079/

I hesitated to mention Rude Osolnik in you post of a plywood bowl you recently turned, but thought it might be appropriate here...

We don't hear much about Rude Osolnik anymore, but at one time, he was a very popular master woodturner.

He once turned a series of birch plywood bowls that you might be interested in seeing more of:

www.rudeosolnik.com

Turnings

Laminate Birchwood Plywood
www.rudeosolnik.com

Birch plywood is a very high quality plywood, and as inspiration, I did some copies of his work about 30 +/- years ago.....sorry, no photos of my efforts...

-----odie-----

3846903_orig.jpg
 
The plywood that he used was called Baltic Birch which is a Russian product that was available in 5' X 5' sheets. The Baltic Birch plywood is void free and all of the plys are birch. I don't know if it is available any more but there is a US made product called ApplePly that comes in maple, and several other US hardwoods. Google ApplePly to get to their website.
 
Don Wattenhofer said:
The plywood that he used was called Baltic Birch which is a Russian product that was available in 5' X 5' sheets. The Baltic Birch plywood is void free and all of the plys are birch. I don't know if it is available any more but there is a US made product called ApplePly that comes in maple, and several other US hardwoods. Google ApplePly to get to their website.
Click to expand...
Still available in Canada. 5x5 sheets from 1/8 thick up to 1 inch thick.
we can even order 4 x 8 sheets. I just did a huge climbing wall in 1 inch thick sheets.
 
@Joe Sheble thanks for sharing your exploration. The AAW journal has lots of photos of Steves work.

Steve gleasner did a lot of plywood work with color. did some demos at AAW symposiums. We took Ellsworth’s class in the 90s.

The grading ply’s run in cros direction with gives a wonderful pattern when colored.
Steve glued up blocks of plywood and then cut and stacked the rings.
This is a back panel from an AAW mag01284606-4FED-4A90-8635-20AB8B1E52F5.jpeg
 
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Thanks all... I certainly plan on doing some more, I really like how they turn out. I've not seen nor heard of Rude Osolnik before, but am certainly inspired by his work.
 
There is an excellent book about Rude Osolnik written by Dick Burrows a former Fine Woodworking editor and Jane Kessler published in 1997 by Crescent Hill Books, Louisville KY. His life story. All very interesting.
 
Glenn Lefley said:
Still available in Canada. 5x5 sheets from 1/8 thick up to 1 inch thick.
we can even order 4 x 8 sheets. I just did a huge climbing wall in 1 inch thick sheets.
Click to expand...
Don't know about now, but I quite a bit of it locally (southern Oregon) 20 years ago when I built the cabinetry for my shop.
 
I buy Baltic Birch in 5x5 sheets at a building materials supplier in Green Bay. The stuff they handle is, I believe, made in Finland.
 
Don Wattenhofer said:
My mistake it is not a Russian product.
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You weren't wrong. https://andersonplywood.com/baltic-birch/

One of the original turners in our region bought government surplus aircraft carrier deck plywood. Keith Adams was his name, and he was one of the original founding members of the AAW. It was a consultant with Vega on their bowl lathe as well. If memory serves, he bought a semi load of it, because of the 3" thickness. That was in the 80s. He still had some left when he passed in 2011.
 
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I can get it at my local woodstore in the 5x5 sheets. I made a few bowls out of it early on that came out very nice. Seeing this I might pick up a sheet of it next time I'm there and make few things.
 
The glue in plywood is harder than the wood, and is hell on any cutting blade, or gouge or scraper. Supposedly, Apple Ply came from "as American as apple pie". don't know if it is true or not. There is a difference between regular and 'cabinet' grade woods...

robo hippy
 
There are some plywoods that are 'marine' grade, and intended for use on boats. No clue as to how to find them. Guess it is like plywood for construction, you need a different grade for roofing and siding, than you do for floors.

robo hippy
 
robo hippy said:
There are some plywoods that are 'marine' grade, and intended for use on boats. No clue as to how to find them. Guess it is like plywood for construction, you need a different grade for roofing and siding, than you do for floors.

robo hippy
Click to expand...
In 1964 I built a boat using plans from Glenn-L the boat was a 16foot SK runabout with frame construction and plywood skin. The marine plywood was Douglas fir without any internal voids plus it had a factory scarf joint to make the 16' length.
 
There’s a company, Harbor Sales, in my region (Mid-Atlantic) that sells all manner of plywood panels including Baltic Birch. I don’t know if they ship nationally. I’ve bought from them in the past and they delivered in their own trucks. Perhaps they ship nationally.

Product List

Product Listing By Type
harborsales.net
 
I purchase Baltic Birch from a company called Woodworkers Source out of Scottsdale Arizona. They ship nationally and have full size or different pre-cut panel sizes and thicknesses.
 
Turning something out of Birch Plywood sounds intriguing. Rather than figuring out the details by trial and prayer could someone direct me to a video or article on how to get started, etc?
 
plywood vase.jpgI turned this a few years ago from a stack up of 3/4" construction plywood left over from a project. It had many voids and the glue was hard on the sharp edges.

The voids were filled with Bondo sanded smooth, and then some dye which was mostly sanded off and a finish applied.

Different and I like it.

Stu
 
Nothing to turning plywood really. You do need to turn a few to see how the various layers change as you change the shape. Segmented plywood has a lot of fun things going on with all the layers but you sort of have to just do a project and see what happens. Then you sort of say, well I wonder what happens if I do this, and give it a try. I have't done any for a long time but I remember turninq quite a few after I saw Rude's bowl a very long time ago.
 
Baltic birch is still available. I sold it and other plywoods for a wholesaler distributor for many years. It is a great plywood. It is available in different grades the most common is BB/BB
One thing to note the 5'x5' is typically made with interior glue while the 4x8 is made with exterior glue.
 
If you are doing segmenting, a source for plywood can be your local cabinet shop scraps. Made several from scraps and gave the owner sectary a vase. Lost interest in using plywood, so haven't done any for a while.
 
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