>>like "real wood!"

I dunno. After doing all that nice wood work on the boat, putting what sounds like some exalted form of particle board on for the coaming seems, well...

The regular posters on this board seem to do their coamings ala Nick, Rob, or Vaclav. Check the sites. Ross Leidy, who has done us all a lot of good, has built all three kinds and shows them on his site. Maybe he'd tell you which method he prefers.

My 2 cents.