Veneer Panels - Examples for class

[Mike Henderson]

I just walked into the shop and took these pictures so I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

But first, Louis cubes are not a good first project with veneer. They require great accuracy and are very tedious. There are also problems that don't appear until you're almost finished which tends to discourage people.

But given that, let's look at the pictures. You'll need three kinds of veneer, one light, one dark and one intermediate between the two. It generally does not look good to have white (like holly) and black (like ebony or dyed black).

The first thing is to make a strip that defines the width of each piece (see first pix). Next, cut your veneer maybe 2' long. All three colors and enough of it so you don't have to go back and cut more.

Lay your veneer against the edge of your cutting board and put the cutting strip over it and against the edge of the board (see pix 2). Use your veneer saw and cut your strips.

This gives you veneer strips the width of your cutting strip (see pix 3). You need to fasten a board on your cutting board at 60* to the front edge. Use a 30/60/90 triangle to lay this in. Put your veneer strip against that board (see pix 4).

[continued on next posting]

[Mike Henderson]

Push the strip down against the front of the cutting board and against the 60* board. Lay your cutting strip on top of the veneer and against the front of the cutting board. Use a chisel (a very sharp chisel) to cut pieces off the veneer strip (see pix 5 & 6).

This gives you these little diamonds (see pix 7). That diamond is unusable because the top point is not sharp.

Take one diamond of each color and put them together to form a box (see pix 8). Put a piece of tape on them to hold them together (see pix 9).

The final thing is to assemble the boxes into the final pattern.

The problem you encounter is "cumulative error". That is, as you assemble the boxes, you'll get each one off by a small amount. You'll then find that nothing you can do will get the boxes to fit together, and all you can do is start over.

I absolutely would not recommend starting with Louis cubes. Do some simpler patterns first and then move up to Louis cubes.

Good luck!

Mike

[Robert Rozaieski]

That's really cool Mike! I have not yet done any veneering as I'm not much a fan of the Federal style, but these would be real cool on a lot of things, obviously not just period furniture. Just another thing to add to the roundtuit list.

[Alex Shanku]

Really cool Mike!!!!

Could you tell me what "sand shading" is?

Also, is that how you achieved the shadow effect on the fans in the first panel?

Thanks

[John Dykes]

Cripes!

Ever plan on teaching in Denver?

Or, short of that, suggest a good book, method, or video for the ignorant?


jbd in Denver

[Mike Henderson]

For many veneer designs you want the look of a shadow. The traditional way to achieve this is to "char" the veneer in hot sand.

You take a pan and put about an inch to an inch and a half of clean sand in it. I use an old cast iron skillet but almost any pan will do. Put the pan on a stove - I use an electric hot plate - and heat it. You monitor the temperature by sticking a piece of veneer into the sand - but not so far that it hits the bottom of the pan. I like the veneer to char in about 15 seconds. This is fast enough that you don't forget it, but slow enough to give you some control. If it's too hot, you burn (and waste) too much because you leave it too long in the sand.

That's about it. The heat of the sand darkens the veneer and does so through and through - so you can sand without removing it.

There's a lot of subtle aspects to the work, however. It's easy to burn the veneer too much (so just take another piece and try again). Also, the veneer shrinks when you shade it so it's best to trim the veneer after you shade it.

For greater control, you can take a spoon and spoon the hot sand onto the veneer in the places you want the shading. The sand has to be hotter to do this.

Do a search on "sand shading" and you'll probably find some demos of it.

The fans in the first picture (above) are sand shaded, as is the basket weave. There are a lot of other designs that require sand shading. The technique goes back a long ways - I don't know when it started but probably about the same time veneer started being used in designs.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Cripes!

Ever plan on teaching in Denver?

Or, short of that, suggest a good book, method, or video for the ignorant?


jbd in Denver

Assuming you already know how to work with veneer, my favorite book is "The Marquetry Course" by Jack Metcalfe and John Apps. It is not for beginners in veneer, however.

Mike

[Alex Shanku]

Thanks for the reply, Mike.

When I try my hand at veneers and inlays, that will definitely be a trick I will try and incorporate!

[Hank Knight]

Mike,

Those are really pretty. Do you use a vac bag or a press? I've done some hammer veneering - single sheet stuff, but I've never tried anything complicated. Very nice.

Hank

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,

Those are really pretty. Do you use a vac bag or a press? I've done some hammer veneering - single sheet stuff, but I've never tried anything complicated. Very nice.

Hank

For small panels like this (about 9" by 12" before the edging) I use torsion boxes for pressing. I have a vacuum bag but only use it for big things.

I bought some cork sheets and glued them to the face of my torsion boxes. The when using torsion boxes, you need something that will cause the whole surface to be pressed. If you just used the face of the torsion box, it would not press the veneer evenly because some veneer is thicker than other veneer. So the thick veneer would get pressed well while the thin veneer might not be fastened down.

Paul Schurch recommends duck cloth but I find the cork works better.

Note that you have to put a sheet of plastic between the veneered panel and the cork (or whatever you use) to prevent the panel from getting glued to the pressing system in case any glue leaks through the veneer.

Mike

[Lee DeRaud]

You'll need three kinds of veneer, one light, one dark and one intermediate between the two. It generally does not look good to have white (like holly) and black (like ebony or dyed black).

You can get a pretty cool effect using all maple or all birch if the grain runs the long way on the trapezoids: the difference in reflectance from the three different orientations looks like three different colors...and it changes as you rotate the piece.

[Mike Henderson]

You can get a pretty cool effect using all maple or all birch if the grain runs the long way on the trapezoids: the difference in reflectance from the three different orientations looks like three different colors...and it changes as you rotate the piece.

I agree - I just didn't discuss that.

And for those of you who don't know Lee, he has a laser set up which will do the pieces for Louis cubes and do them VERY accurately. You don't have nearly the cumulative error problems when you use extremely accurate pieces, but that takes all the fun out of it (Ha, Ha).

Mike

[Lee DeRaud]

And for those of you who don't know Lee, he has a laser set up which will do the pieces for Louis cubes and do them VERY accurately. You don't have nearly the cumulative error problems when you use extremely accurate pieces, but that takes all the fun out of it (Ha, Ha).

I don't have either the talent or the patience to do what you do, so I have to cheat.

And I used up my lifetime quota of "tedious" long before I retired.

[Jim Tobias]

Mike,
That is wonderful work!! The time, accuracy and patience required to make speak as loud as the work itself. Very impressive!!

Jim

[jonathan snyder]

WOW!! Great job Mike. Those are really spectacular. I'd love to to a higher resolution photo of the first one with the waterfall bubinga. Are you hosting those photos anywhere?

Jonathan