End Grain top vs plywood?

[Ryan Henderson]

I'm working on a jewelry bench design and am wondering your thoughts on cutting hardwood to do an end grain bench surface like a cutting board or just laminating two birch plywood boards together as a work surface. Your thoughts?

[Walter Plummer]

Hi Ryan. Unless the end grain is useful for jewelry making I would go with the plywood and edge it with a hardwood. I think you would have to have a plywood underlayment to support the end grain blocks anyway. I think a end grain surface would have to be run through a sander to make a good flat top. Hope this helps. Walt

[Steve Schoene]

If there isn't a strong functional reason for the end grain top, I would go with a solid wood top--with the edge grain. This at least can be renewed if it gets dinged by the work being done. Or, go with the plywood top, BUT add a replaceable top layer of hardboard (tempered Masonite) so that can be renewed every so often as needed.

[Prashun Patel]

If you don't need the heft of a solid wood top for handwork, and don't want the bench to be a piece of furniture, then plywood or even better MDF will suit just fine. I'm a fan of MDF here because of it's stability. A replaceable hardboard top is a good thing too.