Thread: Timber or Veneer

The pattern does look fairly intensive for natural timber. It could be book matched pieces that give the repetitive pattern however I think it is more of a printed laminate rather than solid timber or timber veneer.

Perhaps ask the seller for some close up shots of the edges, ends and underside and post those here as well.

Its pretty unlikely (but not impossible) that solid wood could be so closely bookmatched. The pattern is nearly identical.There would be more variation in the grain in thick pieces i think, probably in real wood veneer as well. My vote is for laminate. But as stink mentioned the edges and bottom would be a dead giveaway.

There are 9 leaves in the table top, natural wood veneer , if you look closely at the little dots in from the left end , they are not identical on each
leaf, if they were it would be laminate. No idea what the timber is? John.

I'm with Shep and The Stink. Looks too perfect. Sides and bottom will tell. Weight doesn't necessarily mean solid timber, just means it's heavy!
It could be a copy of a Malaysian Hardwood, or perhaps a Walnut.

Regards,

Rob

I'm with Nine Fingers. I think there is enough variation for it to be real timber.

The only thing that bothers me is the very perfect surface finish.

Certainly looks like a natural timber veneer layup and not laminate.
Could be Indian Rosewood, but look through the online catalogues of veneer suppliers and you may recognise it.

I'm in with the real wood guys,nine leaves of US Black Walnut .

Rob

My vote is a natural timber veneer. If you look at the photo and blow it up by whatever means available, the visible end has one dark band, a central light band and another dark band oriented left edge to right edge of the top, ie as an edgeband. If it was natural timber boards laminated for width, the end grain would show a more complex pattern, and the chance of a continuous central light band through the full top width would be extremely rare.

Conversely, there is sufficient face pattern variation for it not to be a laminate pattern.

Originally Posted by Martin7

Hi,
I'm about to purchase a second hand dining table.
The owner doesn't know what kind of wood this table is made out of.
to me the table top doesn't look like natural wood, I'm worried it is a kind of veneer.
i have attached a photo of the table top.
can anyone identify what kind of wood this is, or if anyone could confirm if this is veneer.
Apparently the table is quite heavy

Cheers
Martin

Hi Martin

to tell for sure I need a photo of the table's end and/or long edge, or the underside.

From what I can see, the top is veneer. The veneer could be sawn (implies ~2mm thick after sanding) or sliced (implies ~1/3mm thick)
From what I can see, my money, for the moment, is on sawn veneers, the grain pattern seems to vary too much across the table for sliced veneer

for the novice the easiest tell tale is probably the underside.
If solid wood, the grain pattern will be the same.
If the top is a highly figured pattern like you have and a veneer, the underside will be pretty bland because that is a lot cheaper to make.

as to the table's weight, 32mm thick MDF is pretty heavy

I reckon its Queensland walnut veneer.

I am with Ian, looks to be enough variation but also consistent enough to be sawn veneers, and there's nothing wrong with that, in my view a perfectly acceptable use of a decorative timber, of which type I don't know



Pete