Greensboro, N.C. - Columbia Forest Products, North America’s longstanding leader in the hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer industry, has published a new desk reference called the Hardwood Plywood Grading Guide: A Guide to Understanding Popular Hardwood Plywood Face Veneer Grades.

The Grading Guide is written by Ang Schramm, also author of The Complete Guide to Hardwood Plywood and Face Veneer. It covers a number of key topics including:

Veneer cuts and matching

Slicing methods

Face and back grades of popular species

Explanations of common natural characteristics

A comprehensive glossary of industry terms

Because wood is a natural material, there are many unique characteristics found throughout the veneer faces. These naturally occurring inconsistencies make grading wood a complex process which is governed by the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association (HPVA).

Columbia’s Grading Guide endeavors to clarify this process for woodworkers and wood specifiers like cabinetmakers, furniture makers, architects and designers.

“The purpose of this publication is to give some order to this assortment of characteristics in a practical manner, with an overview of the industry-standard grading tables and other content including veneer production, core options, and plywood manufacture,” says Ang Schramm, Director of Technical Services at Columbia Forest Products. “With a sound understanding of the inherent individuality of trees, we have the rare opportunity to make every project or job a signature work of art.”

The new Grading Guide content is available on the web at http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/GradingGuide as a free download for woodworkers and designers or anyone interested in wood knowledge.

There are seven easy-to-use sections including:

An Introduction from Ang Schramm

An overview of Veneer Cuts and Matching

A detailed Grade by Species section featuring twelve of the most popular wood species

A pictorial guide to Natural Characteristics – the common naturally-occurring flaws in wood that makes it so unique

A Core Type primer

A comprehensive Glossary of industry terms

An abbreviated summary of the current ANSI/HPVA HP-1-2009 Standards© for grading hardwood plywood and veneer

Each section is illustrated using large, lifelike photographs of real plywood faces.

For Columbia’s established distributor customers, printed copies of the Grading Guide are available for purchase at the discounted price of $3.00 each. Distributors can contact cfpsamples(at)cfpwood.com for information on how to order.

“Our goal is to provide information in a way that’s easy to understand – and that will give us a valuable tool to enhance communication and ensure that all our customers’ expectations are met when they choose Columbia Forest Products' PureBond® Hardwood Plywood,” Schramm states.

For more information about Columbia’s Hardwood Plywood Grading Guide, please visit http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/GradingGuide or contact cfpmarketing(at)cfpwood.com .

Source: Columbia Forest Products