Thread: Veneer questions

Hi Shane,I have been using veneer since the 80's (not the 1880's)Recently acquired around 5000 sq feet over here in Perth but mine is mostly American maple,Queensland maple and Queensland walnut.
I usually just dampen mine and press between particle board,I think you can add some glycerin to the water or you can buy propriertary veneer softneners.

I have used a fair bit of the veneer you have and am almost certain it is Burr Elm,it is very prone to crumbling away and to severe buckling so needs careful handling.It is only really suitable to be applied in a veneer press,either screw or vacuum bag.

Agree with Mark.

Even severly buckled 2 mm veneers become flat if dampened and pressed between MDF platerns or similar.

If you stack a handful of veneers onto an MDF platern and then add another platern ... then more veneers and another platern ... and so on, you should be OK. I use 2-3 mm shop sawn veneers and find that I can stack about 10 veneers between platerns provided they are already flat (fresh off the saw). Provided there is some weight on the top of the stack, they stay quite flat. If they are buckled, I only put about 4-5 between platerns until they become flat.

My oldest veneers are only about 12-18 months old, but they have stayed flat pressed between platerns. Used some recently, and they were fine.

Yep, Mark's call of elm burl looks spot-on.

For flattening commercial veneers (ie typical thin commercial veneers which are 0.64mm thick or thereabouts) I use the traditional recipe of 3 parts water, 1 part glycerine and 1 part isopropyl alcohol. It works well - in some cases I can wrap softened commercial veneers around a pencil - that tight and with no risk of breakage.

I think the water does the softening, the glycerine slows down the rate of drying, and the alcohol assists with penetration.

Some recipes also call for glue - I think maybe the glue is intended to stiffen things up a bit and make the flattening a bit more long-lasting.

In truth, though, I don't very often flatten veneers. I usually find the glue used when pressing does the flattening good enough - just do your press up a bit slower to give the glue some time to take effect as you go. Its hard to tell from the photo but in your case I don't think I would be flattening it first.

If you do need to flatten it, I would do it shortly before pressing. If it has stored just fine for 50 years then don't mess with that. Veneer is strange stuff - I often say that there is nothing else that I know of that offers so many ways to fail.

cheers
Arron