DIY Network

Wood Veneers: Factory Tour From "Wood Works" episode WWK-609

Veneers -- thinly sliced layers of fine wood -- are used in 95 percent of all modern furniture-making. Veneering adds strength since the thin wood is glued to a plywood substrate and is less prone to warp, crack or be subject to wood movement than solid hardwood.

In this non-project episode of DIY Wood Works, host David Marks presents valuable tips and tricks that he's learned and employed with veneers as a master woodworker.

Veneering goes back to the time of the ancient Egyptians and was traditionally a craft only employed by royalty. It was highly regarded as an art form. The industrial revolution made veneering more mainstream and common, but today it is a viable technique for the advanced woodworker -- thanks in part to advances in adhesives and the vacuum press.

Using commercial veneers, it's now possible to use exotic, rare woods in projects that were, in the past, unavailable or too expensive. David reveals techniques on making veneers more flexible, durable, and repairing cracks and flaws. David also shares tips on how to cut and edge-glue veneers and the various methods of joining veneers to a substrate.

advertisement

Veneer Factory Tour: Exotic Hardwoods and Veneers


David visits the showroom of Exotic Hardwoods & Veneers (figure A) in Oakland, California and talks with owner Bob Nichols. This company specializes in procuring some of the world's most beautiful woods (figure B).

Figure A

Figure B

Some of the offerings at Exotic Hardwoods and Veneers include birds-eye maple (figure C), MaCasser eboy (figure D), European sycamore, and aniegre . . .

Figure C

Figure D

. . . as well as eucalyptus (figure E) and some fantastic burls -- such as olive ash (figure F).

Figure E

Figure F

According to Bob Nichols, the quality of the veneer is a direct corollary to the quality of the logs used. Prime logs are selected and sent to a veneer mill where they are flitched, cut into veneers, packaged and dried. "Flitches" (figure G) are stacks of veneer leaves (figure H) cut from a single log and kept in sequence according to the slices for grain-matching purposes.

Figure G

Figure H

	Figure I
	Figure J
	Figure K