Got a question for those experienced with veneer. Is it acceptable to veneer over solid wood if the species match? If so, is there anything else I should know? I am building a maple armoire and would like to dress up the doors by adding a birdseye veneer to the raised panels. Let me know what you think. I should mention I have never used veneer before so if someone could recommend a book or other resource that would help.
Thanks a lot,
Chad
I am not a liberal.
Replies
Sure it's acceptable. A lot of antique furniture had veneer over solid wood. And it wasn't always of the same species. I've seen Mahogany veneer over native North American hardwood furniture on The Antiques Roadshow many times, for example.
I'm sure that there are others here with lots more experience laying up veneer than I've got. So, I'll let one or more of them field the how-to. Especially since I've never veneered over solid stock myself. But, seems to me that "backerless" veneer would be the way to go. Which means veneer that is just the wood and doesn't have the phenolic and/or paper backer on the backside.
Backerless veneer can be trickier to work with. But, it has the benefit of not leaving as obvious of an edge, particularly if you're using it over wood of the same species like you're contemplating doing.
"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud" - Sophocles.
Good point about antiques. Of course people veneered over lumber before engineered products. Anybody know a good supplier? Thanks for the advice.ChadI am not a liberal.
My two favorite suppliers are B & B Rare Woods, and Certainly Wood. They both have great stock, but I lean a little toward B & B. Check 'em out.
Constantines.com awesome selection aloha,mikeI am not a conservative....... ;-)
Hi Chad,
Well, all of the early pianos were veneer (generally walnut, mahog, or quartered oak) over solid red or white oak stock.. still holding tight after 100 years..
I have done quite a bit of it without problems. I have been vacuum bagging for quite a while, and think that is the way to go. When I started I was doing some boat work, and learned from an article in Wooden Boat Magazine, so I started out using epoxy, and have continued to ever since. Most others use Unibond. Here are some sources.
http://www.certainlywood.com/woodmenu.htm#designer
http://www.vacupress.com/forum.htm
http://www.fgci.com/
Don't even think about using contact cement, unless you like heart-break songs, because thay are always like your life story.
good luck
Chad, working with BE maple I would 5 ply the panels. In other words, you would have the BE face, crossbanded underlayment of reg maple then the solid core with the same on back. With regular maple veneer I wouldn't crossband just lay it with the grain, but the BE can act like burl sometimes, so it might want to check later on. Anyway glue that up use urea resin (unibond 800), then cut the panel profiles. You should barely be able to see the edges of the veneer on the panels.
I make some tables built this way using a 8/4 stock core and have had no checking or splits even though the veneer runs across the grain of the solid core.
The species don't have to match at all, particularly if you are buying veneers which are uniformly very thin. Birdseye maple behaves "funny" anyway and it doesn't expand and contract at the same rate as non-figured maple. The shop made veneers I use are often 3/32" thick and I only want to use it with a solid wood substrate because the veneer behaves like solid wood.
It is very important that you veneer both sides of the substrate. The conventional wisdom is that the veneer be the same on both sides. I find that it really doesn't matter that the veneers match so much as it does that you MUST VENEER BOTH SIDES.
I make solid wood veneered panels by using 6" wide surfaced boards (because I have a 6" jointer") and laying the veneer over the individual boards before gluing it up as a whole. Doing this allows me to bookmatch the veneer. After I lay up the veneer on the boards, I resurface the faces on the jointer. You won't be able to resurface the faces with commercial veneer because it is too thin. It's necessary to edge joint the veneered boards before you glue them up into the panels. Using this process allows me to use clamps to attach the veneer. If you are using large sheets of veneer over a panel that is already put together, you have to get more creative with how you attach the veneer. You can hammer veneer with hide glue or use a veneer press or vaccum press.
With the method I use, I like epoxy. I haven't used anything that works as well. Epoxy doesn't cause the veneer to curl because it is not water based, it's rigid, and it has better gap filling abilities than anything else, which is good if you don't have an elaborate clamping system, the downside is the expense. My second choice would be hide glue because of the repairability should the veneer ever seperate from the substrate. Urea resin is far too brittle in my opinion and I've had problems with using it, plus it costs about as much as epoxy. I've used yellow glue with success, though it can "creep" and doesn't hold the veneer as rigidly. If you're using solid wood as a substrate, it's not critical that the veneer be as rigidly bonded to it as it would be with plywood or mdf.
When I lay up veneer over solid stock I use quartersawn material. QS is less prone to large movement than other (rift, flat, etc) cuts. Jimmy.
I do not do ALOT of Veneering but alittle.. I am NO expert at it but I have this little book that helps if I have a question...
Veneering Handbook by IAN HOSKER..
Guild Of Master Craftsman Publications LTD..
Not sure what I payed for it.. But I'm sure it saved ME a few times...
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