shading veneer with a heat gun?

[Kenneth Speed]

Yeah, I know using a heat gun isn't the usual way nor particularly Neanderthalian (?) but I have a concept/design that needs some relatively large areas shaded on a fairly large piece of veneer. I was brain storming about it a day or two ago and i wondered if it would be possible to use a heat gun and use a shield (stencil fashion) to limit the shading where I wanted sharp lines and let the shading taper off naturally in the areas where I wanted that to happen. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Scoffing Ridicule?

GO NEANDERTHALIAN UNIVERSITY

!! LEARN CLUB !!


Ken

[Greg Wease]

I have seen veneer shaded with a small butane torch--carefully! I'd love to hear the results if you try the heat gun approach.

[Mike Henderson]

One way I've done it is to get sand hot, then spoon it on to the veneer. Make sure your spoon is hot or it'll suck the heat from the sand before you get it on the veneer. Usually takes a couple of "treatments" to get the level of shading I'm looking for. The advantage of this approach is that it's not so fast that you'll burn the veneer - it gives you pretty good control. For example, you can do the second "treatment" only close to the edge so that is darker than the area further from the edge.

You have to get the sand pretty hot, hotter than you'd do if you were sticking the veneer into the sand. You lose some heat in the spooning.

I never tried a heat gun. Use some scrap and let us know how it works.

Mike

[Kenneth Speed]

OK, I need to pick up some veneer shortly, I'll add some birch or maple and try some experiments.

The hot spoon idea makes sense and is cheaper. We'll see. Maybe I can borrow a heat gun from somebody.


Ken

[Mike Henderson]

OK, I need to pick up some veneer shortly, I'll add some birch or maple and try some experiments.

The hot spoon idea makes sense and is cheaper. We'll see. Maybe I can borrow a heat gun from somebody.


Ken
Just to make sure you understand what I meant, you take the sand and put it on the veneer. The only reason for making sure the spoon is hot is so that it doesn't cool the sand during the transfer.

I usually hold the veneer over the pan of sand so that any sand that falls off goes back into the pan.

Mike

[george wilson]

If you google George Wilson harpsichord,and look at the instrument maker movie,you will see me shading leaves of flowers for an inlay with a hot(VERY HOT) dish of sand. They did that in the old days.

[Kenneth Speed]

George,


Thank you. I know about sand shading by dipping pieces in hot sand but in this particular case I need to figure out a way to bring the mountain to Mohammed.



Ken

[Barry Richardson]

It will definitely works, I was was softening some old hide glue on a chair and shaded where I didn't intend to!:o