I took a really nice piece of crotch walnut and sliced it for veneer for a (small) door panel. After I had glued them up book matched, run through a drum sander, hand scraped and finished with shellac the sides don’t seem to match correctly. Depending on how you hold the door to the light, one side OR the other will appear darker. If you hold them exactly right they match beautifully.
What happened? How do I avoid (if possible) this effect in the future?
As usual – any and all comments are more than welcome.
Thanks
Ed
Never show a fool a half finished job.
Replies
This is typical of book matched veneers. The effect you are seeing is caused by the opposing orientation of the fibers in the veneers. There should be a lighting orientation which evens out the look of the two sides (usually directly overhead). It can be worthwhile to discover and utilize this lighting where the piece will be displayed in a more or less permanent location.
Except for careful lighting there is no way to prevent this effect as it is caused by the book matching process. Any finish that would obscure this effect would also obscure the beautiful wood grain which the process intends to celebrate.
Edited 12/17/2008 11:49 am ET by bigfootnampa
Ed,
As was said, this happens with book matches due to the differences in the way the two pieces refract light. Some species of wood show it more than others. This will also happen if you keep the same faces up and flip them end for end. I don't like the look myself and always try to check for it before doing a bookmatch by laying the two the way they would be oriented. Obviously that is hard to do if you are cutting your own veneer and don't want to cut the piece just to test it. Walnut is one of the worst that I have found for this. Q-sawn white oak can be pretty bad also. If I am piecing together veneer and I want avoid this I usually make sure to keep them oriented the same way and (if they are long enough) slide the veneer up or down the neighboring piece to get a pleasing grain pattern between the two. This also avoids having such a repetitive look if you are using more than 2 pieces of veneer.
Rob
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