Opinions wanted - resawing rosewood for veneer

[John Rauch]

I received a sizeable amount of "rosewood" (species unknown but I'm sending a piece out for testing) in trade for building a garden shed for a co-worker.

One project for the rosewood is a dinning room table -- veneer over an MDF substrate. I'm concerned that my bandsaw is not up to the resaw task and was considering finding a shop to do this for me.

I've never done any veneer work, so I need to do some reading, research and practice with some other stock before using the rosewood.

Before I begin, I thought I'd ask:

Do you have an opinion/recommendation about the thickness of the veneer?

Is MDF the right substrate?

Is this too big of a challenge given that I don't have a vacuum press?

The rosewood varies in thickness (5/4, 6/4, and even some 12/4) and generally runs 12 inches wide by about 6ft in length.

Thanks!

[GEDunton]

Given the thicknesses you have available you might wish to consider thin-coat as opposed to venier. Resaw to about 3/8 then joint and resaw again. Either plane, or my preference, thickness sand to about a 1/4. You then have stock that is more substantionl than venier. That can be laminated to a substrata. If you limit the width to 6" or less you could apply to a plywood base, maybe 4" would be better. Instead of a vacuum press, use sand gabs to apply the gluing pressrue. Alternative, clamps and cauls, slighly curved to generate unifrom pressure. this gives you a true wood surface that can be worked with out the nasty sand thru problems that can (and always do) occur with venier.

Hopefully helpful.

[Steve Schoene]

I would see no reason to go to as thick as 1/4" thickness. It would act more like wood than veneer and be more prone in my opinion to delaminate with seasonal moisture changes that the thinner veneer. I would aim for 1/16th of an inch full. Compared to the 1/50th of an inch used in commercial veneer now, that is a very substantial thickness-- similar to the stuff that has survived from the first decades of the 19th century. Which ever way you go, you MUST veneer both sides or you will have a curly table.

[Bart Leetch]

Wear a mask this wood can really mess your lungs up.