Shading veneer:

[richard poitras]

I have been reading some articles on shading veneers, in the articles they state to use ether coarse of fine sand but that is it, not if it is any certain kind of sand? Can any sand work? Or can you use just regular play sand or do you need a special kind? Also it doesn’t specify what temperature to heat the sand to? Can anybody fill me in on these questions? Probably a easy questions for a season veneering vet but for some one just learning veneering like me it is some basic information I need to capture in order to try to do thinks right the first time, any insight would be helpful ….thanks

[Mike Henderson]

I have been reading some articles on shading veneers, in the articles they state to use ether coarse of fine sand but that is it, not if it is any certain kind of sand? Can any sand work? Or can you use just regular play sand or do you need a special kind? Also it doesn’t specify what temperature to heat the sand to? Can anybody fill me in on these questions? Probably a easy questions for a season veneering vet but for some one just learning veneering like me it is some basic information I need to capture in order to try to do thinks right the first time, any insight would be helpful ….thanks
Almost any kind of sand will work but it should be clean and as fine as you can get. You don't worry about the temperature (meaning you don't stick a thermometer in it), you start heating the sand and stick a piece of test veneer into it. When I darkens in about 15 -30 seconds, it's hot enough - adjust your heat to keep it about at that temp.

There are advanced ways of shading that require hotter sand but I won't go into that here.

One piece of advice. Cut your veneer oversize and shade it. Then cut it to the exact size needed. That way if you over shade, you can cut some of the shading off. See the tutorial on making a sand shaded fan here (http://www.wkfinetools.com/tUsing/index.asp).

Mike