Kitchen Style - Cabinets - Wood Veneer

Veneered cabinet doors are a popular alternative to solid wood. Veneered panels are less expensive that solid wood and they have the advantage of permitting the same pattern across all adjacent doors.

Wood veneer panels are also used as front panels to appliances such as dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, wine coolers, etc. Wood veneer can be used on exposed cabinet side panels, when stained to match a solid wood cabinet door. In this case, both the veneer and the door are made from the same wood species (cherry, or oak, or maple, etc.).

The Veneer Panel

The veneer panel begins with thin layers of wood glued together with the grain at right angles over a thick core of particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF), or plywood.

This crisscross design not only reduces the chances of splitting or cracking, but the glue is the same as used in aircraft and marine construction, making the final product stronger than the natural wood.

The Veneer Advantage

In addition to the panel being more stable than wood, The best and most interesting logs are usually sliced into veneer, not only because sellers can make more money from a high quality log sliced into veneer than they can from sawing it into boards, but because certain cuts from the tree are structurally unsound when cut into lumber.

Veneer is also environmentally kind. Veneer is not cut from the log but sliced with a knife (like lunch meat) into 1/32" leaves or sheets. Every one inch thick board produces 32 sheets of veneer. Sawing timber in to one inch thick boards also produces the equivalent of 8 sheets of veneer, in wasted sawdust where the saw blade makes its cut.

How Veneer is Made

Wood veneer is made from slicing or peeling strips of wood off a tree, much like you pull paper towels off a roll. It is much thinner than solid wood and is typically applied to plywood or particleboard to give it strength.

FLAT SLICED VENEERS

The process of slicing from larger lumber planks or half logs, using knives that move backwards and forward - much like slicing bread, is know as 'Flat Slice Veneer'.

ROTARY CUT VENEERS

In this process, the log is soaked in a hot water bath and then mounted on lathe style turning bed, where a blade actually peels off layers of wood from around the outside circumference of the log - much like pulling paper towels off of a role.

Matching Veneer

When it is necessary to use two or more pieces (leaves) of veneer on the same surface, the leaves are aligned at the cut edge. Using different alignments almost limitless and unique visual effects can be attained.

BOOK MATCH

An advantage to using Flat Sliced Veneers, is that the layers are piled consecutively as they come off the machinery.

This allows the manufacturer to sell the veneer in matched panels, which are matched together like bookends. This type of veneer matching is called "book match."

The resulting veneer joints match in a symmetrical pattern, allowing maximum continuity of the grain across the panel.

SLIP MATCH

Here, the adjoining leaves are slipped out in sequence, but with all the same-face sides being exposed. The Slip Match produces a uniform color because all faces have a similar light reflection.

The figure (pattern) in the wood repeats, but the grain does not match at joints. If the grain is not exactly vertical, a vertical slant may appear. If

the grain is straight, the joint may not be noticeable.

RANDOM MATCH

Veneer leaves are placed next to each other in a random order and orientation, producing a "board-by-board" effect in many types of wood.

Degrees of contrast and variation may change from panel to panel, and no attempt is made to make the panels match at the joints. Random matching is often done when a rustic look is desired.

BALANCE MATCH

Each veneer panel face is assembled from leaves of uniform width before edge trimming. Panels may contain an even or odd number of leaves.

To duplicate the look in adjacent panels, each leaf is sequenced and numbered for use in adjacent panels, although the individual leaf distribution may change from panel to panel.

RUNNING MATCH

The panel face contains however many veneer leaves it takes to cover the panel. This is often the most economical way to match veneer, although it comes at the expense of aesthetics.

Usually, this results in unequal widths and a non-symmetrical appearance. Horizontal grain match cannot be expected. Veneer leaves in a running match are seldom matched in adjacent panels.