I have been truing the edges of the 8 pieces of shop sawn curly red oak I'd like to use for the bottom of a serving tray, front and back. The pieces are just short of 25" long and about 4 1/2" wide, ~1/16" thickness. It's interesting how rigorous the definition of "good enough" becomes when you recognize that all curious scrutiny will go to that surface. I'd like the edge junction to be free of gaps so I set up a shooting surface of melamine shelving. The clamping is done with 2 similar melamine shelves set back from the shooting surface about 3" and the whole fixture is secured to the bench with a hold-down on one end and an F-clamp on the other. The veneer is "proud' of the securing pieces by~ 1/8" and I reference the shoot to the bottom of the plane only. I found that I need to check each piece for straightness no matter how good I think my technique. After perhaps 2-3 swipes from the left and also from the right I remove the veneer from the fixture and place it against the edge of a 4 foot Empire level hanging from a nail. Because gravity is working with me, there is no need for support and I can use both hands to position the strip. It is surprisingly easy to see a minimal dip or hump from straight with no need for backlighting. There is always some correction needed, perhaps a low end or a slight concavity in the center. The cuts I take with my LN low angle jack plane are wispy and I prefer this approach, using cumulative passes to get it right and checking the result against the level. When I am done I check the piece against the piece I have just done to see that the match is perfect.
This veneering is the first and last I will do. Doing the making by hand is important to me. There are surprisingly few videos on veneer shooting. For my interest I'm asking forum members how they have done this. Thanks.