VENEERING, in cabinet-work, is the art of laying thin leaves, called veneers, of a valuable kind of wood upon a ground or foundation of inferior material, so as to produce articles of elegant appearance at smaller cost than if they were made solid, or composed entirely of the ornamental wood which appeara on the aurface. Small veneers are cut by hand with a thin saw, the block being held firmly in a vice; but large ones are usually cut by machinery, for a notice of which ace Saw-MILL. They are carefully brought to the right thickness by fine planes ; cut precisely to the required shape; and then glued down to the ground, which ahould be of dry wood, with strong glue. If the form of the article will permit, it is then put in a press until the glue is dry ; but if not, the newly-laid veneers are covered with a board, which is pressed down either by weights or by poles abutting against the beams in the roof of the workshop. In veneering on curved surfaces a somewhat different course is pursued, but with tho same object, that of keeping the veneer in its place until the glue is suffi ciently set to hold it securely. The work is afterwards finished with very fine planes and scrapers, and polished with fish-skin, wax, and a brush or polisher of shavegrass.
It may here be mentioned, that before the saw-mills were rendered applicable, the elder Bninel devised a mode of cutting timber into veneers by a kind of knife. This knife was formed of several pieces of steel, exactly in a line on their lower surface. The block of wood was carried sideways beneath the knife by a screw slide, worked by a handle, and the knife cut it by a short reciprocating or sawing action. The block was raised, after each cutting, to a height equal to the thick ness of the required veneer. The method anawered well for straight grained and pliant wood, such as Honduran mahogany, but not for other kinds.
Ivory veneers, or rather thin sheets for miniatures and for memo randum books, are sometimes not more than one-sixtieth of an inch in thickness, requiring much nicety in their manipulation. ['your.] Vulcanite, or vulcanised india-rubber, is now used as a veneer. It is rolled into thin sheets, which may be either plain or embossed, and it receives a polish by the rolling. In applying this substance as a veneer, the sheets are dipped for a few minutes in boiling water, till they become as tractable as moist paper ; and the workmen can then veneer with them round and over the sharpest curves and angles. Ordinary wood veneers cannot well be bent round corners ; a patent to effect this has been taken out by Mr. Meadows; but in generala is not attempted.
The Americans have recently introduced, under the name of pressed work, veneering of a remarkable kind. Instead of a thin veneer being plaoed upon a thicker substratum, the whole substance consists of veneer. It comprises four, six, eight, or any other number of layers.
Some strong plain wood, such as black-walnut, is selected for the interior layers, and rosewood or other fancy wood for the exterior. The veneers, which are of the usual thickness, are well saturated with glue, and placed one upon another, with the grain of each layer at right angles to that of the next. The mass, while hot, is placed in moulds, named cowls, and pressed forcibly for twenty-four hours. When taken out, the wood is found to be firm, elastic, and strong, and to conform to any curvature which the mould may have given to it. On account of the crossing of the fibres, the wood can scarcely split, except by a force that would rend it to pieces. The pores have become so filled with glue, as to add in a remarkable way to the strength of the aubstance. Mr. Belter introduced this art; and at the present day, pressed-work is very much used in the United States for the better kinds of furniture. Chairs of this make are in demand, for their great strength and remarkable lightness ; it is the back of the chair, generally elegantly curved, that consists of pressed work. There are initially seven layers for the back of a chair, making a substance surprisingly thin in relation to its strength. An odd number of veneers is usually selected, in order that the grain may extend in the same direction on both surfaces. The frame-work for bedsteads is formed in a similar way ; and so are the bodies of such musical instruments as the violin and violoncello. M. Bogaud, another inventor. has succeeded in pro ducing dished or spheroidal Pressed work : that is, articles in wood presenting much deeper curves than those just described. To effect thia, the veneers are cut by machines into strips, each of which varies in width according to the part of the mould into which it is to be pressed ; the cutting must be very accurate to effect this, and can only be done by apparatus mathematically adjusted. A curve of double curvature may be produced by this method. Ilitherto, this dished pressed work has necessarily been very expensive.
We must notice also M. Amite method of veneering in relief. Two moulds, an upper and an under, as in cameo and intaglio, are gently heated, and a sheet of veneer is placed between them. One side of the veneer takes the device in relief ; the other side, hollow, is then filled up with mastic or any plastic substance. The veneer is in the first instance smoothed or polished on the surface which is to be in relief. Paper is pasted on the back; and it is while the wood is yet damp with the paste that it is pressed between the dies; the paste assists the veneer to conform to the dies, and to retain the device when cold. The veneer is not removed from the mould till quite dry. Medallions are produced in this way, remarkable for the sharpness and per fection of the device.