In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 millimetres (1/8 inch), that are usually glued and pressed onto core panels (typically, wood, particle board or medium density fiberboard) to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and side panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry. Plywood consists of three or more layers of veneer, each glued with its grain at right angles to adjacent layers for strength. Veneer beading is a thin layer of decorative edging placed around objects, such as jewelry boxes. Artists can use woodworking to create delicate sculptures. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter), symbol mm is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... Look up glue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A clamp is a fastening device to hold or secure objects tightly together to prevent movement or separation through the application of inward pressure. ... For other uses, see Wood (disambiguation). ... Particle board is a material manufactured from wood particles (e. ... Medium-density fibreboard (MDF), is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down softwood into wood fibres, often in a defibrator, combining it with wax and resin, and forming panels by applying high temperature and pressure. ... A cabinet is a usually oblong piece of furniture, often attached to a wall and made of wood, used throughout the world for the storage of clothes or other miscellaneous items. ... Parquetry floor. ... An example of a flooring job Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor. ... For the UK band, see Furniture (band). ... The image on the cover of this box was made using the technique of marquetry. ... Toy constructed from plywood. ... A bead is a woodworking decorative treatment applied to various elements of wooden furniture, boxes and other items. ...

Veneer is obtained either by "peeling" the trunk of a tree or by slicing large rectangular blocks of wood known as flitches. The appearance of the grain and figure in wood comes from slicing through the growth rings of a tree and depends upon the angle at which the wood is sliced. There are three main types of veneer-making equipment used commercially: A flitch is a longitudinal section of a tree, cut to a suitable size for further resawing into boards, planks or veneer. ... Wood grain describes the alignment, texture and appearance of the wood fibres. ... In wood, figure refers to the appearance, on a longitudinal surface (side-grain): a figured wood is not plain. ... Growth rings of Pinus taeda Growth rings can be seen in a horizontal cross section cut through the trunk of a tree. ...

• A rotary lathe in which the wood is turned against a very sharp blade and peeled off in one continuous or semi-continuous roll. Rotary-cut veneer is mainly used for plywood, as the appearance is not desirable because the veneer is cut concentric to the growth rings.
• A slicing machine in which the flitch or piece of log is raised and lowered against the blade and slices of the log are made. This yields veneer which looks like sawn pieces of wood, cut across the growth rings.
• A half-round lathe in which the log or piece of log can be turned and moved in such a way to expose the most interesting parts of the grain.

Each slicing processes gives a very distinctive type of grain, depending upon the tree species. In any of the veneer slicing methods, when the veneer is sliced, a distortion of the grain occurs. As it hits the wood, the knife blade creates a "loose" side where the cells have been opened up by the blade, and a "tight" side. Conventional metalworking lathe In woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, and glassworking, a lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material so that when abrasive, cutting, or deformation tools are applied to the block, it can be shaped to produce an object which has rotational symmetry about an axis...

Traditionally, veneers were also sawn, but this is more wasteful of wood. Veneering is an ancient art, dating back to the ancient Egyptians who used veneers on their furniture and sarcophagus'. Portable saw A saw is a tool for cutting wood or other material, consisting of a serrated blade (a blade with the cutting edge dentated or toothed) and worked either by hand or by steam, water, electric or other power. ... Map of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was the civilization of the Nile Valley between about 3000 BC and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. As a civilization based on irrigation it is the quintessential example of an hydraulic empire. ... For the UK band, see Furniture (band). ... The Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses, at the National Etruscan Museum. ...

See also

• Multilaminar veneer

Multilaminar wood veneer uses plantation wood to reproduce decorative effects which are typical of quality wood species (often protected) and rare. ...

External links

• DIYinfo.org's Wood Veneer Wiki - Practical information on working with veneers
• Decorative Wood Veneers Association Information on species, matching techniques and specifying of wood veneer.
• Select Veneer Company Leading wood veneer supplier with lots of information about wood veneer including a how veneer is made video

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Wood veneer