I finally tried the Columbia Forest Products mdf core ply. The 1/4 Red Oak cuts like butter with thick proofgrade settings – I increased the speed by about 10 to reduce the tiny bit of char.
Lesson learned - Finish the plywood first, then mask.
Gotcha - This particular CFP ply only has the named veneer on one side, the 2nd side appears to be good quality birch. Big surprise if one is expecting the obverse and reverse to be the same, a la proofgrade. As others have pointed out, CFP has other products that have the named veneer on both faces. I ordered the wrong stuff, hence my surprise.
There are a handful of 2-sided CFP ply products available. I’ve found the quality to be really inconsistent, though, at least from my local supplier. I had to return 2 of the 5 shipments I’ve ordered due to extreme warping, and excessive divots and scarring.
An alternative is to use Baltic Birch and apply a veneer to both sides in the places where you need it or two thinner sheets to accomplish the same goal.
Parts like your handle would not be hurt to be double thick.
I am plotting a similar piece and trying to figure how to do it in solid wood to avoid “plyedge” but it needs to be 10"x18",
