Hey Joe

Getting the okoueme:
Where do you live? Hardwood shops are the usual place to go for such things, the Home Depots of the world don't carry that stuff. There's a listing out

What it is:
There's real okoume plywood that meets the British Standard (BS) 1088 and there are lots of fakes. (All the fakes are out of the China, Malayasia, Indonesia area, the same place where crappy tools and goods are made, and the majority of spam houses are, too.)
This link has the BS 1088 standard:
http://www.glen-l.com/wood-plywood/okoume.html
There's a real good article in this month's Wooden Boat magazine by Chris Kulzinski, the guy who wrote the book on building S & G kayaks, all about okoume plywood. It's a must-read!

Some additional information on working with marine plys, including okoume is found here:
http://www.glen-l.com/wood-plywood/wp-index.html#index

Where to get it:
This link has a list, somewhat dated, that can help find it. Buying and transporting sheets is better then ordering and shipping. You want to inspect the sheeys for cracks, voids, gouges, bogus stamps, etc.
The lists:
http://www.glen-l.com/resources/lumber-suppliers.html
http://www.woodfinder.com/

Things to keep in mind:
That BS1088 certification is hard to acheive, few manufacturers are certified in the world, and even fewer are certified by Lloyd's of London. That said, there are lots of plys that have these stickers stuck on that say that they meet the BS 1088 standard. The only "commonly" available BS1088 standard okoume ply certified by Lloyd's is from the Joubert group in France (Spain, UK and elsewhere). They have a staff at the manufacturing plants near where the okoume grows that watch the process daily. The other groups haven't responded to my queries or if they do, have a QA/QC program that is insufficient. The Joubert link is:
http://www.joubert-group.com/uk/1.htm

On thickness:
To quote Jethro Tull, "To be thick, as a brick" The standard for kayaks seems to be between 1/4 inch (which "equals" 6 mm ply) and 4 mm (which "equals" 3/16 ply). The difference is that the thicker stuff has 5 ply and the thinner stuff has 3 ply. There's a 20% difference in weight with the thicker ply being about 20 pounds per 4X8 sheet and the thinner 4 mm being 16 pounds per 4 X 8 sheet.
The 1/8 inch is used by some but to me seems too thin. There are lots on this board who have made wonder yaks with the thin stuff, but wimps like I don't dare to go thinner then 4 mm. Then again, I'm new to this S & G thing and of course dove in with helping on several yaks in the 'hood. The 6 mm seems too heavy but easy to work with, the 4 mm is just fun and light. A friend and I are building his S & G Night Heron in hopefully 10 days, and are using ply we found locally, cutting it out, etc.

Hope this helps

: Hello,
: I am looking for plywood to build a kayak, which has a frame. The local shop
: said that they did not have 1088 British Standard Oekume. But, they do
: have what they call 'ordinary Oekume marine plywood in one eigth
: thickness'. The guy says that this should do the job for me. Can anyone
: comment on the advisability of going with this? The guy at the shôp says
: that they never get one eight in 1088 British Standard. So, it would have
: to be a special order. and that would be expensive.
: thanks, Joe