Veneering
In this article I want to clear up some of the ‘bad press’ about veneering. There has been quite a lot of confusion about veneers in the past few years and it is not being helped by certain TV ads! Given that it is sometimes used to cut the cost of production using veneer instead of solid wood, there are a lot of benefits of utilising the method.
Basically there are 2 types of veneering. There is the type used to lesson the cost and time of purchasing and drying timber, with the aim of convincing the customer that it is all made from solid Oak or similar. This is a method of ‘cutting corners’. Try and avoid these types of furniture because they are usually mass produced and tend not to last too long, aside from being lacquered with a finish that kills the glow of the timber with a flat and dull look. I wont go into the other negative aspects of them, that’s another story.
Then there is the type of veneering used by craftsmen to enable the use of the most exquisite and special timber the world has to offer. Everything from the very rare burr woods to the ripples and quilting of other species. Although these woods can sometimes be used in the solid, they can be unstable because of their uneven figure or twisting fibres. But it is the nature of these peculiarities which sets them apart from the norm. We want to see them. It should not be trying to cover anything up but instead expose the true beauty of these exotic materials.
Maybe you have seen an antique table with the veneer lifting or flaking. Houses in the past never had central heating, never had the quality of todays adhesives and were usually veneered onto lesser woods e.g pine, which when it expands and contracts with fluctuating humidity makes the veneer crack and delaminate. I veneer only onto stable substrates so that doesn’t happen.