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Gallery

D 2744CF 6-101D-41A 6-893D-AF 796F 5712B 0	5C 86DD 8E-D 033-4684-BB 52-2FD 14E 20F 69D	(Untitled)	(Untitled)
724F 5A 9E-C 60F-4DD 4-8F 1F-1783B 9BB 71D 5	E 813C 969-658E-49BD-9349-9C 7A 3F 3F 0F 91	F 6CB 8F 68-D 2D 9-4655-9830-15BFA 6F 76E 03	DD 721048-0964-4E 36-B 1A 2-E 856C 061DFCD
CD 0E 6315-A 171-4E 6B-8472-F 3C 13315477C	1ABC 7C 60-D 3A 2-4F 28-A 3C 2-57A 2713303A 0	8F 2A 1FB 4-947E-44FC-9725-C 6438DB 53ED 9	D 8F 2DAD 5-0117-48DA-A 5A 0-D 1D 7A 9AC 279A
634A 98F 0-A 6E 9-4C 71-882F-721F 3F 4C 46AA	524C 990D-9127-4649-8E 16-19A 7392B 3C 29	(Untitled)	45080E 14-77F 7-40FF-BF 15-FE 16A 81BFF 9B
AF 8997F 5-0D 74-4CB 2-9A 47-878B 21971D 71	26EC 1718-CEF 6-4AE 7-9472-43380905A 220	15304DEE-784C-47FB-AB 26-FAF 92B 72B 9C 1	(Untitled)
7001ACAF-65E 2-46E 4-ABBD-195406B 0302B	AD 14B 40B-840F-467E-AAAC-5C 09266CB 386	CEC 6C 6E 2-C 99F-4F 1E-98CF-D 2E 879FD 31D 4	The second stack from the left is the material this set of cabinets was built from. I purchased four pieces, consecutive so they could be bookmatched. For reference, each piece is 6" wide and 94" long. Prices vary depending on quality, this lot's price was $9.50 per square foot. Total for the fours sheets came out to $160.00, very reasonable IMO considering the color and character. By far, some of the most beautiful veneer I've worked with to date
I've bookmatched a few times now. IMO, the veneer needs to be as flat as possible for good book matches. You can buy softeners or you can make your own. Found a recipe online a couple of years ago, it has worked well for me. 6 parts distilled water, 3 parts denatured alcohol, 1 part glycerin.	$Thumbnail for Found this tip online sometime back and it makes a world of difference when crosscutting veneer. Lightly dampen the veneer with a wet cloth along your cut line, both sides. Before I found this tip, I almost always fractured the veneer towards the end I was pulling towards with the veneer saw (pictured next). Haven't had any issues since incorporating this into my routine. This tip is really only needed for crosscuts, cuts with the grain are much easier.$ Found this tip online sometime back and it makes a world of difference when crosscutting veneer. Lightly dampen the veneer with a wet cloth along your cut line, both sides. Before I found this tip, I almost always fractured the veneer towards the end I was pulling towards with the veneer saw (pictured next). Haven't had any issues since incorporating this into my routine. This tip is really only needed for crosscuts, cuts with the grain are much easier.	In this case, I needed to retain as much of the original width as possible. Two consecutive pieces of the veneer were crosscut to length first and then stacked on top of each other for the rip cut. I prefer a piece of MDF as the straight edge to guide with, no chance of it damaging my veneer saw blade. The little handsaw can be purchased from numerous places online. I like to support small business owners when I can and get most of my tools and supplies from Veneer Supplies.com. Here is a link to the saw.	It's very easy to lose track of which piece came from which piece of veneer. I mark my individual sheets to help me keep them oriented and tied together. In the picture above, the two pieces came from sheet number 3 and sheet number 4 (top corners are marked). Although you would think as long as these two pieces stayed together, it wouldn't matter which side was up and which side was down. There's a definite difference in the character of the wood when flipped over and it doesn't line up as well one way vs the other. Picture on the right is the same two pieces as on the left but flipped over to see the back side
(Untitled)	(Untitled)	Once I had two sets, I placed them on a piece of scrap cardboard and sprayed them down with the softener. Wet one side, immediately flip and wet the other side. If you try to saturate the veneer from one side only, it will curl and buckle worse. After they've sat 5-10 minutes soaking up the softener, I'll blot up any remaining puddles and then proceed to put them between two boards to be clamped flat. BTW, if it's not obvious by the second picture, this is when you would usually get a really good idea of what the veneer will look like once finished. The oranges and reds in this lot are incredible	Clamp for a few hours and open it back up to inspect for moisture. If needed, replace the paper and clamp for additional time until they are dry.
Two pieces end to end. Cover with a single sheet of the brown paper and then repeat the process for the next set of veneer. I usually limit my number of veneer layers to three. Once you have finished the layers, make sure the top has two sheets of paper (just like the bottom did). That will prevent a lot of the moisture from getting into your flattening boards.	Clamp for a few hours and open it back up to inspect for moisture. If needed, replace the paper and clamp for additional time until they are dry.	Here is a close up of one of the sidewall sets. There are a couple of splits about an inch left and right of the edges that will get worse if I don't soften and flatten this veneer. Can't even attempt to straighten the book match edges until this stuff is treated. Otherwise, the splits will grow. Once these were flattened, I added additional tape over the splits to prevent any glue from coming through and to help prevent any further expansion of the splits.