What are the disadvantages of Plywood?

Question

What are the disadvantages of Plywood?

Answer 1

it burns

it breaks

it ain't cheap

Answer 2

The edges of ply wood are ugly. The cross grain pattern and knott hole voids are easily seen when looking at the cut edge of ply wood. This mean that if plywood is used in furniture or other visible applications the edges will spoil the look. This requires additional labor to hide the edges by laminating a veneer to the edge or mittering the corners or adding a strip of regular wood to the edge to hide the plywood.

Planing a plywood edge especially tough with hand tools, it is difficult because of the cross grain mixed in with the straight grain along the cut. Fine tooth saw blades should be used to avoid splintering along the edges of the saw kerf (cut). Cutting regular wood you can easily RIP cut or CROSS cut using larger tooth faster cutting blades as the single grain pattern of regular wood allows. Plywoods mixed cross grains mean that every cut is BOTH a RIP and CROSS cut so a special fine tooth (slower cutting) blade should be used if fine wood working is being done where splintering and tear out along the cut would spoil the surface finish.

The Size advantage of ply wood is also a disadvantage. It iseasier to carry a small narrow piece of lumber than a full size sheet. Especially up a ladder or to hold in place on a wall when nailing.