Getting Started Veneering
If you've been wanting to tackle a wood veneering project, but haven't been sure
how to get started, you've come to the right place. At Rockler
Woodworking and Hardware, we want to help you get started with your
first veneering project, and we want it to be a success. So we put
together this article where we'll give you a glimpse of the
history of wood veneering, describe a few of veneering's most
outstanding benefits, and describe the most common types of veneer and
methods for applying veneer to a substrate.
We also want to point out two other Rockler articles
that'll give you some "nuts and bolts" advice on getting started with
two common veneering methods. In
Veneering
with Contact Cement, we go over - step-by-step - everything
you'll need to do to make your first contact cement veneering project a success.
In
Thin Air Vacuum Press Tips,
you'll get some helpful advice on using the affordable, amazingly effective Thin
Air Vacuum Press Kit.
When you're ready to start your veneering projects, Rockler has everything
you'll need - from high quality face grade
veneers to
the best
veneering
equipment, including scrapers, veneer smoothing blades and rollers,
vacuum presses, adhesives, veneer cutters, and how-to books.
Wood Veneering Misunderstood
What do you think of when you hear the word "veneer?" If
the term calls to mind furniture masterpieces with complicated
marquetry designs or criss-crossing patterns of inlay, then you may
think of wood veneering as an exalted technique reserved for only the
most skilled woodworkers. On the other hand, if you were educated in the
solid wood construction school of woodworking, you might think of veneering as
low grade substitute for the "real thing."
The truth is, neither view gives a very accurate picture of the craft. Veneering
is simply a method for decorating the surface of one material with another more
attractive material. In the hands of an expert, it can produce some of the
most remarkable effects in woodworking, but there's also plenty of
room for beginners. Most veneering techniques, in fact, aren't all
that complicated, and with just a few hand tools and with a little know-how
you can have perfect results right from the beginning.
The idea that no self-respecting woodworker would stoop to the
"deceptive" practice of veneering is another unfortunate
misconception. Veneered surfaces made with modern techniques and materials are
every bit as durable and attractive as solid wood, and in many situations
veneering offers considerable advantages over solid wood
construction. Substrates for veneer, for example, can be chosen for their
dimensional stability and other construction properties rather than their appearance. And
once they actually know a little about veneering, most woodworkers come to
see it as a respectable and extremely useful technique.
A Brief History of Veneer
Techniques for decorating wood with veneer have been
around for a while. Veneers of African ebony with inlays of ivory and other
exotic materials were commonly used to decorate artifacts the Pharaohs
planned to take with them into the afterlife beginning with the earliest
dynasties - fragments of inlaid wood roughly 5,000 years old were found
in King Semerkhet's tomb. An extravagantly inlaid table presented to
Julius Cesar by Cleopatra, and a citron table purchased by the Roman orator Cicero,
which featured "veins arranged in waving lines to form spirals
like small whirlpools," are two examples of the highly
developed veneering techniques in practice over 2000 years ago.
In the seventeenth century, veneering took a major step forward with the
development of better woodworking tools. And by the beginning of the
eighteenth century, veneering began to take center stage when a shift in
furniture making style replaced frame and panel construction with case and
drawer construction, and surfaces of figured veneer were favored over shaped
panels and carved surfaces. Toward the end of the eighteenth century,
veneering reached a high point in the meticulously inlaid neoclassical
furniture of designers like George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton.
It was in the nineteenth century that veneering started to develop
a bad reputation when some furniture manufacturers were using veneer
mainly as a method of covering badly constructed furniture. By
the middle of the 1800s, commercial furniture producers in America had
grown into factory-type operations that weren't reliant on skilled
cabinetmakers, and veneer was seen as a way to save on material costs more
than as unique decorative technique. To compound the problem, methods for
producing the large amounts of veneer necessary for the level of furniture
production that was going on were crude compared to the current state of the
art. The result was thousands of pieces of cheaply
constructed furniture with low quality veneered surfaces.
Over the past few decades, wood veneering has been on the upswing.
Veneering techniques and equipment have been perfected to the
point where veneer is an extremely reliable choice for
producing natural wood surfaces for furniture and cabinets. Veneering also offers
a method for using exotic wood species that's much less demanding on
hardwood resources than solid wood construction. Veneer cutting
equipment that produces near perfect results, along with the reliable adhesives
and stable man-made substrates like MDF (medium density fiberboard)
make veneering an exceptionally viable alternative to solid wood
construction in a number of woodworking applications.
 Types
of Wood Veneer
There are several types of wood veneer, from exotic, highly figured veneers cut
from Macassar ebony, crotch mahogany, or walnut burl to low-cost veneers used as
a backer to balance the non-visible side of a veneered panel. In ancient times,
wood veneers could range from 1/4'' to 1/4'' thick, but today wood
veneers are usually sliced to a thickness of 1/90'' to 1/40'' and a
veneer of 1/16'' would be considered very thick.
Most veneer is either rotary cut or or cut in single sheets from a flat
surface of a log. In rotary cutting, a log is mounted on a lathe and
rotated so that long sheets of veneer can be peeled off with a veneer cutting
knife. The rotary cutting method allows large amounts of veneer to be cut in a
short time, but because the grain pattern is usually considered less
desirable than flat cut veneer, and also varies considerably and is
difficult to match, it is not often used in one-off furniture making, where
the finished look of the piece is a primary consideration.
"Plain sliced" veneer is an example of a veneer produced
by moving a flat piece of wood called a flitch along its length or
crosswise against a stationary veneer cutting blade. The
resulting veneer is packaged in piles of eight sheets (also called a
flitch). Since a flitch of veneer represents only a very small
section of the original piece of wood, and since no wood is lost in
the cutting process, the grain pattern of the individual sheets usually stays
pretty consistent throughout. This consistency of color and grain pattern
make matching the individual sheets of veneer easy, and the results are
often striking.
In plain slicing, the blade is positioned parallel to the center of the
log, producing the characteristic "cathedrals" in the center of the
sheet, with a narrower grain pattern toward the outside edges of the sheet.
Variations of the plain slicing method include rift slicing,
half-round slicing, and quarter slicing. All of these methods differ in how
the blade is oriented to the grain of the wood. In quarter slicing, for
example, the flat surface of the flitch is cut perpendicular to the
annual growth rings of the tree. The method produces unique patterns, like
the characteristic medullary ray flecks of quartered oak and the striped
effect in quarter sliced African "ribbon stripe" mahogany.
 The
veneers produced by these methods can be arranged (or matched) in different ways
to get the desired appearance. "Bookmatching" is one of the most
popular arrangements for highly figured veneer, such as burl or crotch
mahogany. In bookmatching, alternating sheets of veneer from a single flitch are
flipped over to produce a mirror image between adjacent sheets of veneer.
Once they are cut, veneers are prepared in a variety of ways to
serve different applications. Plain sliced veneer with no paper or
adhesive backing is the most straightforward example, and is most useful
for veneering flat surfaces. Paper-backed veneer is a good choice for
working with curved surfaces, since it will flex readily without the risk of
breaking. Other types of specialty veneers include pressure sensitive or
"sticky-backed" veneer that has a pressure sensitive adhesive
applied to its back surface. This peel and stick veneer is a good choice
if speed and convenience are what you're after. Two-ply veneer is a special
grade of veneer made up of two sheets of veneer applied to one another so that
their grain orientation is at 90 degrees, adding strength and stability to the
veneer.
 Methods
for Applying Wood Veneer
There are a number of acceptable methods for applying veneer. From the
time-honored craft of hammer veneering to modern vacuum press veneering, each
method has its advocates and applications where it works best. Although
many woodworkers have their favorites, there is probably no one method that is
the best choice for all situations. The method to choose depends on
the type of project you are doing and the amount of time and expense you want to
devote to your veneering project.
Hammer Veneering
Hammer veneering is the oldest method of applying wood veneer to a
substrate. A veneer hammer, which is really more of a stiff, blunt metal
scraper attached to a long handle, is used to smooth out the veneer on the
substrate, and to squeegee out excess amounts of the heat-activated glue
used in the process. Traditionally, hide glue in the pearl form is used
for hammer veneering because of its consistency and long open time.
Hammer veneering with pearl glue has a few advantages. Because the glue
is thermo-activated, it can be revived with a hot iron after it has set to fix
mistakes and work out any bubbles found between the veneer and the substrate. In
addition, it is a relatively simple process and requires only a few tools.
And with examples of hammer veneered pieces applied in 1500 B.C. still holding
on, it's safe to say that veneer applied with this method can stand
the test of time.
Veneering with Mechanical or Hydraulic Press
Veneering with a mechanical press is a straightforward process - veneer is
positioned on an adhesive coated substrate, a caul (a flat piece of
wood used to help distribute the pressure evenly) is placed on top of
the veneer, and the three are clamped together with hydraulic or
mechanical veneer press clamps. Using a mechanical or hydraulic pressure
for applying veneer is a reliable method, but the presses - especially
large scale ones - can be time-consuming and unwieldy to use. In
addition, a good sized mechanical press is heavy and takes up a lot of
shop-room.
Using a small-scale homemade mechanical press is a good choice if you
don't plan to do a lot of large or curved pieces and you're looking for an
inexpensive solution. A serviceable press can be made using nothing
more than a few 2'' X 2'' hardwood crossbearers, a couple pieces of
3/4'' sheet material, lengths of 3/8'' threaded rod, wingnuts and washers. If
you're sold on mechanical press veneering, you can build your own full-scale
press using construction lumber and handscrew clamps.
Veneering with Contact Cement
As the name implies, contact cement bonds the veneer to the surface of
the substrate on contact.Applying veneer with contact cement is a fast,
inexpensive method that will yield good results if it's done right. The
contact cement method is actually one of the easiest veneering
methods, and is very reliable provided you use a high quality adhesive and understand
how to use the adhesive correctly. If you're new to veneering and want to
get your feet wet with a simple method, try our step by step instructions
in Veneering with Contact Cement for your first project.
Veneering with a Vacuum Press
A vacuum press consists of a vinyl bag with a pump attached to evacuate
the air from the bag. The press relies on atmospheric pressure to press the
veneer against the substrate while it is being glued. Vacuum presses
produce a surprising amount of clamping pressure - at 25 Hg (inches of mercury)
a vacuum press will exert 1872 lbs. of pressure on a 1 square foot piece of
wood. But besides producing ample force, a vacuum press has
features that make it just about the perfect method for applying veneer. Unlike
mechanical clamping systems, a vacuum press applies even, consistent
pressure over the entire surface of the workpiece, creating "intimate
contact" between the veneer and the substrate. Additionally, a vacuum
press actually draws air out of the cells of the wood, which is replaced by
adhesive. According to adhesive manufacturers, intimate contact and cellular
penetration are the two most important features in creating an optimum bond.
For all of the advantages that a vacuum press offers, it's a relatively
inexpensive system to set up. For a few hundred dollars, you can put
together a vacuum press system that allows you to veneer not only large surfaces,
but also allows you to veneer curved surfaces with a fraction of the
set-up time it would take using a mechanical press. And for woodworkers who
want an especially economical entry point into vacuum veneering, there's a hand
operated system that makes all the benefits of vacuum press veneering
available for smaller projects for less than the price of a few good C-clamps.
If you want to try vacuum press veneering with a system that'll put a lot
of pressure on your projects, but not much on your bank account, check out
Rockler's Veneering with the Thin Air Vacuum Press Kit. It's got all of
the information you'll need to get started using a vacuum press that'll
give you the perfect introduction to one of the best veneering techniques
available.
Ready to get started?
Check out Rockler's supply
of quality face grade
veneer
and
veneering supplies
and equipment. As always, happy woodworking!
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