Veneering one side only, same species, same orientation
boxbrush
| Posted in General Discussion on
I’ve access to some pretty ugly but quarter sawn 3/4″ thick boards and was thinking of making a long cabinet similar to this (minus the tube) and just veneering the inside of the boards with decent veneer of the same species or with something of very similar characteristics.
Yay or nay?
Replies
And laminating Formica on the other side?
Painted
I would resaw your 3/4 stock and use that as a secondary veneer somewhere.
One of the purposes of veneer is that you don’t have to waste hardwood and you can control wood movement by using a man made material like MDF. The only downside is you have to veneer both sides regardless of substrate. I haven’t tried going against it.
With adding something to the surface of a board, the best practice is to treat both sides of the board exactly the same. It sounds like maybe you know this.
If you veneer one side, the risk I see is the glue you use might create a barrier to transfer moisture and boards might cup.
If I was going to do that, I think I would use dewaxed shellac on both surfaces. I'm told shellac has the greatest barrier to moisture transfer of any commonly available finish. Then if you want a more protective finish, put a coat or two of your. preferred finish.
I like finishing my pieces this way because shellac dries so fast, I can build up the finish very quickly. I rarely need a coat of varnish over this, but I would do that if I had something like a tabletop that might take a beating or might get water or alcohol or ammonia spilled on it.