That tree had a few awful years, a couple of the growth rings got really narrow, and around those narrow growth rings there were a lot of pitch pockets, and a third of the board had a crack running along it. I started with a rough sawn 2x8 and managed to get the face frame of a night stand out cutting around all the damage.

I counted at least 15 growth rings outside of that before I ran out of board, I wonder if it was the 2003 drought?

Oh I'm sure baltic birch would hold up to joinery a lot better than this stuff does. Especially the innermost plies seem to be very low in quality, I think it's made out of kudzu and politics. It held up do dadoing and tenoning reasonably well but I had to do the half-blinds as all climb cuts, if I tried any conventional cuts it would start blowing apart. Baltic birch is a lot better made, maybe appleply if you can find it.

Just the one, she doesn't have room for another. I did build a fairly robust CAD model of this one to plan it out though, so I may use this pattern, or a modification thereof, in the future.

Yeah with the way those dovetails fit "pounded together" is a bit more accurate.