What is this plywood?

[Pete Staehling]

This is some plywood that I picked up at the curb on our heavy pick up day. Can anyone identify it? It is 3/8" thick and 5 plies. The center ply looks a little thicker. One side has perfectly uniform grain with pretty much no flaws for the whole sheet. The other side has lots of little holes. The piece I got was about 23" by 74", so I am guessing the whole 4x8 sheet probably looked like that.
https://i.ibb.co/2ZyW2wS/1014190705.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/dfFpgjv/1014190706.jpg
1014190705.jpg
1014190706.jpg

[Ole Anderson]

Hickory? Coloring looks right. Like my kitchen cabs.

[Gary Ragatz]

Hickory? Coloring looks right. Like my kitchen cabs.

The grain in the first pic seems awfully uniform for hickory. Maybe quartersawn or rift sawn oak?

[Bill Dufour]

I have noticed that Hoe Depot's plywood from central and south America just says "plywood" no indication of species. they have had some Monterey pine plywood from China that looked good with nice thin layers. Now it is much thicker layers and fewer of them. Looking more like common construction ply.
Bill D

[Pete Staehling]

The grain in the first pic seems awfully uniform for hickory. Maybe quartersawn or rift sawn oak?

It is uniform like that throughout he whole sheet, for what that is worth.

There are some tiny little flaws that look like tiny knots here and there. They show a little better in this picture.
https://i.ibb.co/hHz5zWc/ply4.jpg

[Pete Staehling]

I have noticed that Hoe Depot's plywood from central and south America just says "plywood" no indication of species. they have had some Monterey pine plywood from China that looked good with nice thin layers. Now it is much thicker layers and fewer of them. Looking more like common construction ply.
Bill D

Yes looking at the sides it looks like all the plies have some voids except the good face, so I figure it is common grade stuff, nothing fancy. On the other hand it does have 5 plies (not too bad for cheap 3/8") and the face ply isn't paper thin. The species puzzles me though. It doesn't look like any plywood I have seen before.

Interestingly even though the face ply isn't super thin, the repeating pattern of the darker grain pattern and knots in the second ply shows through as a kind of shadow. Not sure if the face ply is that translucent or if the color just bled through.

[Bill Dufour]

Yes looking at the sides it looks like all the plies have some voids except the good face, so I figure it is common grade stuff, nothing fancy. On the other hand it does have 5 plies (not too bad for cheap 3/8") and the face ply isn't paper thin. The species puzzles me though. It doesn't look like any plywood I have seen before.

Interestingly even though the face ply isn't super thin, the repeating pattern of the darker grain pattern and knots in the second ply shows through as a kind of shadow. Not sure if the face ply is that translucent or if the color just bled through.

Montery pine is one of the most widespread trees planted for timber. Interesting since it has such a small natural habitat. Probably less then 100 by 20 miles. Basically Near Monterey and few holdouts near San Francisco. I belive it is bigtime in Brazil and Austrialia? Weak, easy to rot, wood from short lived trees.
Bill D

[Pete Staehling]

The color doesn't look like the Monterey pine (Radiata Pine) that I have worked with, but maybe that is because of the age and conditions that the piece of plywood has been used/kept in.

The grain looks different than the Radiata pine I have seen as well and indeed doesn't look much like a piece of Radiata that I have on hand. It looks tighter, like old growth wood. Of the lumber I have around it most closely resembles a piece of ancient vertical grain sinker bald cypress pulled up from the bottom of a local river for milling. I am not saying the plywood is cypress or from a 1000 year old tree, but the face ply resembles the sinker cypress more than anything else I have around. The grain pattern actually looks a lot like the cypress. I hadn't seen plywood out of cypress before but a quick google search confirms that it exists. This piece came from a home project that was torn out, so it was of unknown vintage, but probably not more than 40 years old.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is cypress, but definitely am not sure.