North Carolina Discount Furniture
Veneers
Veneering is the application of thin layers of decorative woods on top of (glued or pressed) solid wood panels, plywood, particle board or MDF. One of the biggest advantages of using veneer is the ability to match wood grain patterns to make the piece look more uniform. When applied to a lower quality material, the overall piece has the look and feel of the higher quality veneer. The use of veneer can also add strength to your furniture because of the bonding methods used to attach the veneer to the underlying material.
The appearance of the grain in wood comes from slicing through the growth rings of a tree and depends upon the angle that the wood is sliced. There are three main types of veneer slicing equipment used commercially:
A rotary lathe in which the wood is turned against a very sharp blade and peeled off in one continuous or semi-continuous roll;
A slicing machine in which the flitch or piece of log is raised and lowered against the blade and slices of the log are made;
A half round lathe in which the log or piece of log can be turned and moved in such a way to expose the most interesting parts of the grain.
Each slicing process gives a very distinctive type of grain, depending upon the species. In any of the veneer slicing methods, when the veneer is sliced, a distortion of the grain occurs. Veneer layers are usually glued and pressed onto core panels of different materials to obtain doors, tops and side panels for cabinets and other pieces of furniture. Veneers are commonly used as inlays in furniture to produce a design that wouldn’t be found on a natural slice of lumber.
