Can anyone id this veneer?

[James Waldron]

I've been asked to repair a table that has a veneered top. The edge of the top has damage to the banding, which appears to be a quartersawn material, but I haven't been able to find a match after searching the on-line offerings of a number of veneer vendors. If anyone can give me a clue of what this wood may be, I would be most appreciative.

Here are a couple of views, one with flash, one without, of what I'm looking to match.

354274 354275

I can come at least close to a match with dye or stain if I have the right veneer to work with. I can saw out veneer if I can find a piece of qs material. But until I know what I'm looking for, I'm stymied.

Can anyone help?

[george wilson]

Could be stained yellow pine,though I have never EVER seen it used in that fashion. Have you seen the actual color where the veneer is damaged?

[James Waldron]

Thanks for the idea, George. I can't see the underlying color beyond saying that it's fairly light color alternating with darker, reddish hard growth rings. It does not seem to have the difference in hardness (with a thumb nail test) between the light and dark that I would expect with SYP. It doesn't dent with a moderate thumb nail test, but old SYP can get quite hard. I would still expect the light rings to be dentable with a thumb nail but no give so far. I can try a slice or two down in the shop and see how it looks/behaves. All the stuff at hand is new, fast growth stuff and the grain is not as tight as this material. I may have to look for some old growth stuff to get a decent match if the Southern yellow pine is the right answer.

[Pat Barry]

How much damage? is it just the little triangular pieces? Or is more extensive? Curious to see the damaged area needing repair

[Jim Koepke]

Any ideas as to where the table was from originally?

That may help in discovering what woods were used in its making.

jtk

[James Waldron]

The table is a mid-price, mid-quality commercial thing, decently built, but nothing to brag about. Said to be about 15-20 years old. U.S. origin, I think.

The field appears to be walnut, cut to diamond shapes with light colored (white oak?) small triangles at some of the tips of the diamond shapes. That's all in very nice condition and makes a very nice appearance. Only the banding around the edge is problematic, and that only in the one area shown below. Once again, one with flash, one without. (On my monitor, the colors are off; the real color is somewhere between the two photos, rather closer to the redder look of the flash photo on the right below.)

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I don't know what the core under the veneer is made of. I'm not willing to start tearing into the problem unless I find some reasonable material I can use to patch the veneer area.

Don't know how the damage occurred.

If possible, I'm thinking that the best repair would be a section all the way from the edge to the inboard seam with the field (about two inches), for a span of about six or eight inches. That will encompass the damaged area and a decent margin on either side.

Other ideas welcome! But finding that veneer still comes first.

[Jim Koepke]

The table is a mid-price, mid-quality commercial thing, decently built, but nothing to brag about. Said to be about 15-20 years old. U.S. origin, I think.

My thought was if there is a makers stamp on the underside it may help in determining what woods might be in use. Makers do not want to spend a lot on having woods shipped cross country for commodity furniture.

If you live in the San Francisco area McBeath hardwoods may be worth a visit. In the Portland, Oregon area there is Gilmer Wood Company and Crosscut hardwoods. I know McBeath carries hardwoods and veneers, Cross cut would have wood you could from which you could cut your own veneer. Take some prints of your images.

Maybe others could offer up their favorite local sources. Eventually someone who is in your area might name a good source, maybe not.

If you mention your location, maybe there is someone in your area with a source worth pursuing.

jtk

[James Waldron]

Nice thought, Jim. Sadly, there's no maker's mark to be found. The thing lives in the Southeast Atlantic coast, so I'm guessing the origins are likely to be North Carolina, maybe Hickory or environs for, say, 1990 or thereabouts. Those guys used mostly Eastern hardwoods, but also shipped in stuff from everywhere else as well, particularly for smaller bits like veneer banding.

[george wilson]

I lived very close to 2 furniture factories in the 60's, when the USA still made stuff.:)(I still remember those wonderful old 36" Tannewitz bandsaws. You had to look at the teeth on the blade to tell if they were running!)(Probably sold off for a song when they closed). They used a 1/8" thick poplar veneer cross grained to the carcass as an underlayment veneer, to help smooth out any rippled surface from the actual solid wood carcass.

In the picture just above the one that looks brown, the veneer looks white beneath the stain. In the redder colored picture, it looks stained all the way through. So,I don't know what the heck!! It STILL looks like yellow pine, and not really that close grained, but I can't know the scale of the pictures.

I don't think you can go wrong with SYP. I could cut you a slab across the top of my 18th. C. Southern yellow pine blanket chest at the foot of my bed. But NAH!!!!!! It IS pretty close grained. Early 18th. C.,with cabbage feet.

[Phil Mueller]

Ok, George, enlighten me. I found bun pumpkin feet and bun apple feet...but no luck on cabbage feet. Care to share a picture? I'm assuming carved ala Acanthus...but cabbage instead?
Thanks.

[george wilson]

They are probably called something different around here. Just squashed ball lkie feet,with a simple outward upside down triangle coming out of the bottom,about a half inch high.

[Stew Denton]

Maybe 20 years ago my wife and I were in south Texas visiting her sisters family. I looked at adds for sawmills in the area, thinking about wood sources, and found one. In speaking with the guy by phone, his business had gone from cutting up trees for lumber to tearing down old buildings and milling the planks used to build them into lumber for furniture. What they were framed with, and what he went after primarily, was old large buildings with large old growth SYP beams. He told me that the old growth SYP was great for furniture, and after it had aged a hundred and 50 years or so, it was no longer yellow inside, but instead aged to a brown color. That old growth lumber was in good demand, and he made more on it than fresh lumber, so he had evolved into the recycle market with old growth SYP for the more high end market.

I do know that when we remodeled my folks house in the mid 60s, that the trim lumber was SYP. The house had been built in the 1880s I would guess, as the older parts had square nails, and I think that they were hand made, but it has been a very long time ago, so don't know about the "hand made" or not. That aged SYP was HARD HARD HARD, and it was no longer yellow on the inside, rather a light brown.

Old growth aged SYP, think brown not yellow, at least such was what he said, but he didn't say whether it was a light brown or dark.

Stew

[Frederick Skelly]

Jim,
When I saw your pics, I thought to myself, "Man, that sure looks like SYP" but I was afraid to say that out loud, so I was going to send you a PM. :D Glad I wasn't the only one.

Good luck on your restoration!
Fred

[Pat Barry]

If you can't exactly match the grain pattern it might be better to just blend the color of the damaged area with dye and shellac and make it less obvious,

[Roy Lindberry]

I've been asked to repair a table that has a veneered top. The edge of the top has damage to the banding, which appears to be a quartersawn material, but I haven't been able to find a match after searching the on-line offerings of a number of veneer vendors. If anyone can give me a clue of what this wood may be, I would be most appreciative.

Here are a couple of views, one with flash, one without, of what I'm looking to match.

354274 354275

I can come at least close to a match with dye or stain if I have the right veneer to work with. I can saw out veneer if I can find a piece of qs material. But until I know what I'm looking for, I'm stymied.

Can anyone help?

Being from the Northwest, my first thought was stained/dyed Douglas Fir. Then I see that George has guessed SYP, which shares a lot of the same visible characteristics, so I guess I'm not that far off.