I am just curious what the thought pattern is out in forum world.

Chop... Chop

Adam

Well Adam here's another view: Veneer or Solid stock.

In my case I need veneer for things that you can not do with solid wood in the case of joinery and some times stability. In other cases, veneer work allows you to achieve a design arrangement that you have trouble doing with limited matched solid stock.

What would I add to the earlier discussion?
Veneer from commercial suppliers is expensive in many cases and you don't really get the biggest bang for your buck. Additionally, you come up short if you're looking for workable veneer. This I think is what Krenov was hinting at and its a point other furniture makers have discussed in the past.

A recent example in my shop: I was building a desk and book case. I chose to make some of the fancier wood pieces in solid wood but I needed veneer to finish up the drawer fronts on the desk. The drawer widths varied between 3.5" to roughly 6" wide and they were all 35" long. To get commercial veneer to fit the solid wood substrate I checked a couple of the well known suppliers. Their prices for matched pieces big enough to cover the 4 drawers was around 6.00/foot and you had to buy the whole sheet to get the section you wanted. Worst case 18.00/drawer front.

I bought a 5/4 piece of crotch walnut at 7.00/bf and cut 6 pieces of veneer 7"wide x 36" long that matched and they were a heavy 1/16" thick. You can scrape and finish out this material with no worry of chipping or working thru it. This is important with crotch, curly and birdseye maple.

The commercial pieces were 1/40" and brittle. I would need to treat them before applying them. It was economically foolish and quality wise questionable for me.

I love to veneer and I've done a ton of it over the years. I have nothing against veneer vacuum bags(like to get one soon) but hammer veneering is just too easy to ignore. Once you get the feel, its like riding a bike. Its also economical.

I am in a small shop not in an industrial production setting so I don't need stacks of pre-cut veneer. I have a good bandsaw and I have a few very good resaw blades I have used for years-- they have paid for themselves many times over.

OK .. what's the point? Consider cutting your own veneer when you find the stock that you want to stretch further. Try doing some resaw work and develop another skill set.

I will include a few photos to help make some sense of my input.

I hope the photos go in the sequence I uploaded. I tried to show the progression from start to finished project.

Hope it adds to the earlier discussion.

dan

Dan,
I recently picked up a new Rikon 14" deluxe and have plans for resawing a lot of unique boards I've picked up over the years.. What bandsaw do you have? and which resaw blades have you had the best luck with or feel they are the best investment "if expense" given the results.. 1/16" shop made veneer isn't possible for everyone.. sounds like you've really honed your craft and really have your machine dialed in.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

Scott

What bandsaw do you have? and which resaw blades have you had the best luck with or feel they are the best investment "if expense" given the results.. 1/16" shop made veneer isn't possible for everyone.. sounds like you've really honed your craft and really have your machine dialed in.
Bandsaw: 1961 Delta 20" (forgot the model #).
Bandsaw Blades for resaw: I use Lenox blades most of the time.
Veneer 1/16: Not as tough as you might think.

Note: Before I get started on an explanation let me add a point-- I have no connection to Lenox. I have a small part-time shop that I operate to pay for my woodworking past time.

My bandsaw has rather old-time cool blocks for a guidance system. Not the best. The tires on this saw are 8 year old original black tires from Delta. The poly-tires just do not work well on this model. I have tried them and they were unsat. I have them on my 14" delta(1961 ca) and they work very well for small narrow blades. I think the key on the wheels is to get them aligned and get the tire surfaces "bump" free.

Tires and maintenance: I take one of my old wide resaw blades and put it on backwards. The teeth are facing the other way so I won't get cut during the tune up. With one door open(upper first) I run the machine. I have a block of wood with 120-150 sandpaper glue to it that I rub on the tire ever so lightly while the wheel is turning. This takes some of the crud off the wheel and "trues" the wheel. Repeat on the bottom. The wheels are quite smooth now. Do not be too aggressive and flatten the dome on the tire or you will ruin them. Just a cleaning will help.

Bandsaw blades: I use the Lenox bi-metal blades(60.00/140") for most of the rough resaw work. They last a long time and they give you really good results for milling down heavy stock.
For expensive woods, I use the Lenox Trimaster. This is the "Mack Daddy" of my work with crotch walnut, curly maple and birdseye maple. I like the 1" wide blades. My machine(large wheels) handles them very well. I can not say enough about these blades. If you have expensive wood that you have invested your bucks in, you want a reliable blade that does not wander. I have 2 Laguna blades that I bought at a great price and they are also very good blades. The Laguna advantage is they will resharpen the carbide several times for you at a great price- Lenox does not provide this service. So... if you are cutting tons of veneer you might want to explore the Laguna path. After 2 years and many hundreds of feet, the Lenox is still my first choice on the starting lineup. Last point on blades- keep the teeth per inch as low as you can find. Remember these blades are working really hard so get the best you can find and they will pay you back with long lasting performance.

Fence: I do not use a long fence aligned with the blade to cut veneer. Most of the boards are just not straight. I use a pointed fence at the start of the teeth. The only thing I have to do to the crotch(in the photo) is make it flat from side to side along the length of the board.

Veneer: as you can see in the pictures, the veneer is flat and very stable(even crotch walnut). I don't do anything to the veneer face I am glueing to the solid wood drawer substrate. I take a toothing plane to the ground but I left the veneer slightly rough(about like a toothing plane surface). This gives the hide glue a little more texture to grab while hammering. Once the glue dries, a little touch up with a scraper and it's finito. The hide glue is much easier to conceal and color than the plastic glues.

I hope this makes sense. When all is said and done, I think the resaw blade is the most important factor in the equation. Get a good one and you'll ask yourself why struggled so long with the wrong blade for the job.

good luck
dan

One minor point I'd like to add is to practice with some cheaper woods before attacking your "big bucks" stock to cut your own veneers. It would be a crying shame to make mistakes (everyone does at first) on that beautiful crotch pieces of walnut when you could have learned on some poplar or whatever.

Paul
the little guy

Nice post Dan.

I see your decision to resaw more towards solving your design problem.

After exhausting what was commercially viable, the only way to work the visual in your furniture design was to cut your own veneer. Which to me indicates your extensive skill set.

I believe alot of your decision making also had to do with the style of furnture you were building. I'm wonderng if commercial veneer would have come back into play under the different constraints of say Hepplewhite.