Resawn Veneer

[Andrew Joiner]

I did some test cuts and it looks like shop sawn veneer is limited to a pair of faces if you want a good match. Even if I keep kerf loss and sanding to a minimum some figure is lost. Then flipping a leaf the figure changes quite a bit in 1/8" thick veneers even more in 3/16" thick. So I think I might be limited to "pairs" of faces like the top photo.

I marked and numbered my 4 slices and tried all combinations, but only see pairs that match. End matching like photo A with sawn veneers seems to have no potential.

http://images.meredith.com/wood/images/160panels_bg.jpg

I think the only way to get a match like photo A or B is with conventional sliced not sawn veneers.

Kinda sad for me because I really have no reason to buy a huge bandsaw now.

Photo A
http://www.belleartae.com/images/thumbnails/veneer_match/endmatch.jpghttp://www.belleartae.com/images/thumbnails/veneer_match/bookmtc2.jpg < Photo B



Anyone have any luck getting more than just a pair to match? Is there some trick I'm not seeing?

[Bill Wyko]

Actually you can remove some material from one edge until they match. Give that a shot and let us know if it worked.:D

[Frank Drew]

. End matching like photo A with sawn veneers seems to have no potential.

Photo A
http://www.belleartae.com/images/thumbnails/veneer_match/endmatch.jpg




End matching with the right veneers works with things like drawer fronts; imagine one of your matched pairs running across a dresser drawer. That said, I'm not all that fond of matching, maybe one reason why I never got into sawing my own veneers.

[David DeCristoforo]

It all depends on the angle at which the grain runs to the face. If you have perfectly "vertical" grain (looking at the end of the board) as you would with quarter sawn wood, you will always get a "perfect match" but very little figure. The sharper the angle, the more variation there will be between the faces. The thickness of the kerf will affect the match too because the more wood you remove, the farther you move from a "true center" between the two pieces. "Sliced" veneers also exhibit this anomaly but a much lesser degree because when veneers are sliced, no wood is "lost". Most of the time, with sawn veneers, you have to shift the pieces around a bit to compensate for the "missing" wood. Most of the time you can get a good but not perfect match.

[Andrew Joiner]

It all depends on the angle at which the grain runs to the face. If you have perfectly "vertical" grain (looking at the end of the board) as you would with quarter sawn wood, you will always get a "perfect match" but very little figure.

Right David. As I played with my sample cuts I thought verticle grain doug fir might match better.

I'll try your idea a little more Bill,but I'm fiddling with the slices now and it looks like the thinner the better and sliced will give the best matches.

Thanks for the feedback .

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have been making some thin sliced book matched pieces lately. The interesting thing that I found was in some of the hidden details. At first you'd think to just take a board, resaw in half, then resaw those pieces in half again and you'd be done. Instead what I have found to be a reliable method of making multi-book matched panels, as follows:

1. Face and edge joint, and plane the stock as usual
2. Mark one edge across the entire thickness. This will be used for a reference later.
3. Set the bandsaw to the desired thickness
4. Resaw off one slice
5. Now either drumsand or LIGHTLY plane the resawn face of the remaining stack flat again (removing as little material as possible)
6. repeat 4-5 until you have the desire number of slices (or you're out of stock)
7. Stand the pieces on edge with the same original side up (use the mark from #2 as a reference)
8. Now lay the pieces down alternating the matching edges (ie., the first two pieces lay with the reference mark together, the 3rd and 4th lay with the marks apart)

The only problems I have run into with this method were do to hidden flaws in the wood that cause the book-match to not flow well or made it VERY obvious that the wood was book matched.

[Joe Jensen]

How thick are the slices. Hard to tell from the photo, but your's look thicker. Remember that commercial veneer is really thin. The thinner the slices, the better the match for more than a pair...joe

[Andrew Joiner]

Joe,
I tried 1/8" thick and 3/16" thick. You are verifying what I found.


Anthony,
I used the same method. How thick did you saw your veneers? Yes it can be called bookmatched , but the thicker the veneer the worse the match is.
You may have used straighter grain stock. I used Walnut with a sapwood streak and got a poor match on 1/8" thick.


Thanks for the feedback.

[John Thompson]

Agree with others.. it is difficult to get an exact match often as a figure will change in the thickness from heart-wood towards sapwood. I got a ton of re-saw working at the moment on a computer desk-hutch. The matching won't be perfect but... it sure saves a ton of expensive wood by resawing to get it close mounted on a substrate.

BTW.. you will notice in much more than a person viewing your finished piece who is not intentionally looking for it.

Sarge..

[Chris Padilla]

I've done a lot of resawing for my Tansu (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=92396) using walnut.

For starters, your veneers are going to be too thick. You really want to go as thin as possible to help relieve/minimize wood movement issues in the future or you'll want to use a very strong, very rigid drying glue like plastic resin.

I resaw to 3/32" and sand to 1/16". So far, so good. I guess it depends on how fussy you are about book-matching but I've been quite happy and even "wow'ed" at some of the bookmatching in my Tansu. It looks very cool but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Michael O'Sullivan]

Chris-

What do you use to sand the veneer -- just a ROS? Would a veneer survive a trip through a drum sander?

[Anthony Whitesell]

Oh, a 1/16" piece of veneer will absolutely survive a trip through a drum sander. The question only question is, is your drum sander set up well enough not to ruin itself when run a 1/16". The drum needs to be really close to perfectly parallel to the bed so the sandpaper doesn't hit the feed belt. Not hard to get it setup, just some time and trial-and-error.

[Chris Padilla]

I use my Delta 18-36 drum sander to sand down my veneers to 1/16". There is a pic of the set up in my Tansu thread.

1/16" veneer is pretty robust. As you get thinner than that, it becomes, well, much less robust.

I purchased my DS used and killed an entire Saturday futzing with it (the height-adjustment mechansim on it is a joke) but it is now very well dialed in for sanding down my resawn veneers. I wouldn't be happy with this DS for doing much else if it involved adjusting the height too much. With veneer sanding, I don't adjust the height very much so it is fine...in fact, excellent.

[Andrew Joiner]

Thanks Chris,

1/16" is much better. Still of course pairs match the best as the any third piece in a sequence must be flipped.

I was used to working with sequenced matched hardwood plywood making office furniture.

Now I have some time and a collection of slabs that I want to slice, so the huge bandsaw may be back on the list!

[Chris Padilla]

Andrew,

If you looked at my Tansu thread, I only used walnut wide enough for a bookmatch so two pieces were enough and the match looked good to me. I did do some fine tuning jointing a few pieces here and there to improve the match but for the most part, it all came out nice enough for my eyes.

Slip-matching or >2 piece matching would be more, uh, challenging for sure but it could be fun coming up with some interesting patterns.

One trick I've seen for veneers is using n number of mirrors taped together to help one see patterns. For example, if you're thinking of a 4-way match, adjust two mirrors together at 90 degrees and set it on the veneer and move it around. You'll see all kinds of interesting patterns this way.

I recently picked up lottsa 1/32" slices of birdseye maple. That should be interesting to work with...it is all sequenced, too.

I don't think you necessarily need a HUGE bandsaw but one that has a strong motor (3 hp+?) a stiff frame, and an acceptable resaw height.

My MM20 has a 4.8 hp motor and 15.75" resaw capacity with the supplied Euro guides. I think it will be my BS for a long, long time. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Euro bandsaws.

[Andrew Joiner]

Right Chris,

I saw the Tansu photo's and nice work. Now you know what I mean by a "pair", as it looked like you did on the Tansu.

A pair to me is if you resawed once and opened the newly sawn faces like a book. A sequence would start with a third face.

I've only owned a 14" bandsaw so a 20" seems huge to me!

[Chris Padilla]

Thanks for the kudos on my Tansu. It has been fun and I'm learning a lot resawing and pressing veneers. This is my first project doing all this.