Hammer veneering – Any tips or tricks
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Woodworking Methods and Techniques / Hammer veneering – Any tips or tricks
- This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 10 months ago by prbayliss.
-
AuthorPosts
-
Does anyone have any experience hammer veneering?
I’m going to try to learn how to do it on scraps before potentialy attempting it on my current project. My veneer is 1/45″ walnut crotch.
Here’s my plan so far. I’m currently waiting for the veneer to dry from stage 3.
1. Smooth up the board to be veneered.
2. Rough up the surface with a Stanley #12 scraper with a toothed blade.
3. Flatten veneer (using veneer softener) between 2 flat surfaces (Floor tiles) and weight down
4. Cut the veneer slightly oversize using a veneer saw against a wooden straight edge. Leaving 1/8″ overhang.
5. Make plenty of 192 gram hide glue. put in glass container, cover with water, mix and leave until it gels.
6. Get the glue pot going and make for a slightly runny mix.
7. Lay down a fairly copious layer of glue on the board.
8. Lay veneer face down on the glue, apply glue to back of veneer.
9. Lift veneer off and place right way around on the board.
10. Put in a couple of modeling pins to stop the veneer from moving.
11. Squeegee out the glue from between the board and the veneer using a veneer hammer, starting in the center and in a zig-zag pattern noting for cracking sounds as the glue dries.
12. remove excess glue from the edge of the board using small scraps of wood etc.
13. Take a step back and either admire the fine job so far or go into frenzy of trying to fix 🙂
14. Warm any areas that may have bubbles with an iron, possibly put a pin through, or make a small cut with a razor blade.
15. Go back again over those areas with the veneer hammer.If there is anyone here with experience, can you confirm the process I’ve outlined? Any tips or suggestions would be wonderful.
I’m probably going to be testing tomorrow and I’ll report back with my progress.
Many thanks,
Paul- This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by prbayliss.
- This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by prbayliss.
28 May 2018 at 6:59 am #548227Paul, all the processes you have mentioned are accurate. However it will also depend on the thickness of the veneer and if you are bookmatching or joining veneers together. My only suggestion would be to add additional clamping—come up with a veneer press or a vacuum press. I think animal hide glue is great but it’s a bit of overkill. Pva glue also reacts to heat…so maybe less costly, but I would prefer hide glue if I could afford.
Good luck with the projec — hope to see successful results.
Thanks Jake for confirming my process!
I tried it out and it went surprisingly well. I managed to take a small gouge of the veneer on the first attempt, but that was because I overworked it. The second attempt went to plan and it seems like a very quick and simple technique.
I tapped the veneer with a small screwdriver to test for any dead spots and it sounds nice and tightly adhered.
I guess that I’ll find out tomorrow how it looks when i trim the edges and do some light scraping to get any excess glue from the veneer.
Here’s a picture. Albeit not the best photo.
Regards,
PaulAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.28 May 2018 at 8:59 pm #548236Looks great. I noticed that usually problems are near the join line of the veneers—that is, if veneers are stitched together.
Thanks Jake,
This was the first time so I wanted to just go simple. I was expecting it to be much more tricky than it ended up being.
My next test is going to be book matching. Imagine the darker end of the veneer in the center of 3 drawer fronts, book matched. As I understand there are a couple of methods that I could choose?
The first would be to cut, match and tape the pieces together then hammer veneer the whole piece.
The second method would be to veneer one half, then lay the second half down with a slight overlap and cut and peel the veneer then tack the joint down with the iron and hammer.
The second method appeals, but I question how to get a centered and accurate cut line which would match up for all three drawers.
I’ve attached a photo of the planned end recipient of the veneer (the 3 drawer fronts, cock beaded) assuming I get competent enough to follow through will all of this veneering – they’ll get the cock beading regardless.
Your thoughts and opinions will be truly welcomed.
Regards,
Paul- This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by prbayliss.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.29 May 2018 at 12:52 am #548240You’re welcome Paul.
When I bookmatch, I take the two halves of the veneer and secure them together with a bit of masking tape at the ends. Then I put them onto a straight edge and pin it down at the ends. With a pressure block on the top (hand held) the veneers are clamped down to the straight edge. That’s when I use my number four plane and take long shavings of the veneers. It’s important to have a perfectly straight edge, because if it’s cupped or has a belly the two halves will have a gap.
Then I line them up together and use bits of orange masking tape. That’s what we have in US that has less adhesive and stretches well. It’s important not to stretch the masking tape too much. Very little stretch is plenty of clamping when all bits of tapes are clamped down. Then I use a long tape through the entire length and start glue up.
Remove the tapes as soon as the glue is set. The longer it’s left on the veneer the glue becomes sticky.
There are also specialty veneer tapes that you can use along the joint. They typically have three holes on them which let you see if the bookmatching is correct… honestly I’m not use to this later method.
Thanks Jake,
Lots of good information there. I’m liking the idea of clamping the veneer between two straight boards and planing straight. Then taping as part of the glue up. I’ll see if the local hardware store has orange tape.
I’ll keep you posted on my practice runs!
Cheers,
PaulAgree with the procedure you described originally above-this is classic hammer veneering, and is done with hot hide glue. PVA glues are not appropriate for hammer veneering, and this procedure does not require additional clamping, veneer press, or vacuum, etc. Glad it worked well for you. For bookmatching agree with the procedure above, except recommend veneer tape rather than masking tape-this is a paper tape coated with a little hide glue, and is made for this procedure and easier to remove after. This is a centuries old technique, but antique veneers were much thicker than modern, might have been 1/16″ and so current veneers are more fragile and harder to work with. Keep at it!
Hi @kjord,
Thank you for the reply. My neighbor yesterday described me as a purist since I would go for a charcoal smoker over propane. I think he’s probably right, which is why I wanted to do this with the hot hide glue and no clamps or vacuum bags.
The only changes to my procedure that I would modify are step 10 – The modeling pins were not needed at all. I was able to seat the veneer by starting with gentle pressure in the center.
The only pieces that needed warming and a touch up were the edges. I’ve since cleaned up and planed the overhanging edges off and everything looks very tight. I’ve also scraped up the excess glue from the veneer and it looks very good. I don’t have a picture right now, but will post one.
I’m going to do more tests, but I think that I’ll end up doing this on my project.
Best regards,
Paul -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.