Just recently occurred to me: (no experience w/ this)

The surface veneer of ply for stitch and glue yaks is so thin and easily damaged by over sanding, the stitching process, and esp the discoloration prob of joining ,whether scarf or especially butt - would it not make huge sense to put a wetting out coat on first before doing ANYTHING - even cutting out? Chipping would be reduced on stitching and cutting and planing to shape, discoloration reduced on the joining, obviously potential staining reduced, oversanding would give clues when bare wood reached, marking out would remain on surface. And any one using double cutting for symmetry or design inlay layout would have a more protected surface for templates or ply stacking.

Are the down sides - of slightly extra wt and mechanical bonding of subsequent glass and joints - overweighing of some of these benefits??

-mick