A Brief History of Hardwood Plywood & Veneer

From the Pharoahs to the Present

To begin the story of hardwood plywood and veneer, we must turn back the pages of history to the period when pharaohs ruled Egypt. During that era, nearly 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians of the Nile Valley used remarkably durable cedarwood to build houses, palaces, temples, and fleets. With wooden rollers, they moved the enormous stones needed to build the pyramids of their pharaohs. Around 1500 B.C., this early civilization found yet another use for wood - veneering.

Veneering involves gluing one veneer (a thin sheet or layer of wood) to another or to some other underlying material. Today, a more complex form of veneering creates plywood - the assembly of three or more layers of wood with grain alternating at 90 degrees. The veneers are cross-layered and joined together by an adhesive.

One of the earliest records of veneering is a pictorial mural unearthed by archaeologists in Egypt. Early Egyptians also built furniture with plywood. Egyptian mummies were entombed in cases constructed of plywood and veneer. Some two thousand years ago, Cleopatra presented Julius Caesar with a veneered table richly decorated with inlays. The Chinese, Greeks, and Romans were also early users of veneer and plywood.

During the 17th century, the art of veneering became more refined with the development of better tools. During the 18th century, the famous English designer Thomas Chippendale and other cabinet makers used veneers to produce their lavish pieces. Thomas Sheraton, and other craftsmen of his day, used many rich hardwood veneers, such as cherry, mahogany, maple, and walnut, to embellish their work.

In 1830, the piano industry became the first North American industry to use plywood. A decade later, an American named John Dresser was awarded a patent for a veneer cutting lathe. This machine laid the foundation for the development of the modern high speed lathe and the plywood industry as it is known today.

By the late 1890’s, as a result of mechanization, plywood became increasingly affordable. Plywood was then, and is still today, commonly found in household items such as wall paneling, sewing machine cabinets, chairs, chests, organs, desk tops, and doors.

Hardwood plywood is distinguished from softwood plywood in that the former is generally used for decorative purposes and has a face ply of wood from a deciduous or broad-leaf tree. Hardwoods include such species as cherry, birch, beech, chestnut, hickory, maple, oak, walnut, gum, and poplar. There are more than 90,000 species of hardwood in the world today. Occasionally, softwood species are also used for decorative purposes.

Softwood plywood is generally used for construction and structural purposes. Softwood plywood is assembled with woods from evergreen, or needle bearing coniferous trees, such as pine, spruce, or fir.

In the early 1900’s, the first stock panels were produced. A panel was made in a standard size which could be cut into smaller sizes if desired. These stock panels were, and are, handled by many distributors and retailers. The standard size in North America today is 4’ X 8’ but for special uses may vary in length from 6' to 12'.

With scientific advancements of the 1920’s and 1930’s, the quality and availability of adhesives improved. Until the 1920’s, the only adhesives available were glues of animal and plant origin - hide, bone, blood albumin, casein, and vegetable glues. The development of synthetic resin adhesives during this era was one of the most important innovations in the manufacturing of plywood.

During World War II, plywood played a very important role; it was used for the construction of airplanes, boats, barracks, and weapons. President John F. Kennedy’s famous boat, the PT 109, and the British Mosquito Bomber were made of plywood. This aircraft, known as the wooden wonder, could exceed 400 mph in level flight - a fantastic speed for a 1941 combat plane. During the peacetime years that followed, plywood and veneer continued to meet the needs of many industries. Today, it would be almost impossible to compile a complete list of hardwood plywood products. However, some common applications for hardwood plywood include chairs, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, tables, lamps, wall plaques, wall panels, chests, computer furniture, and television and stereo cabinets. It has been estimated that 80 percent of all household and office furniture contains hardwood plywood.

Some popular sporting equipment made with plywood includes snow skis, water skis, toboggans, bowling lane channels, golf club heads, skateboards, hockey sticks, and table tennis paddles.

The versatility of plywood is illustrated by its use for specialty products such as musical instruments (guitar, violin, ... ), shoe heels, die boards, airplane propeller blades, trailers, etc. The list is almost endless.

In addition, plywood can be impregnated with chemicals to develop impreg and compreg, wood-plastic combinations. These products are harder and more dense than ordinary plywood and are used for propellers, patterns, tooling jigs, durable knife handles, electrical insulators, flooring, and other items.