Fabricators
We offer a variety of products to match your manufacturing methods and equipment:
1. Veneer, unspliced, no backing: For customers who can splice and press their own veneer, they normally prefer this product. Our veneer leaves are approximately 25” wide and either 99” or 124” long. We package them in bundles of 16 leaves for flat cut and quartered items, and bundles of 32 leaves for burl and birdseye items. Please check with us on the leaf size when you order as we will invoice the exact size of the leaves. We recommend slip matching when you splice our veneer.
2. Spliced faces: We will splice veneers to your size. We stock 50”x99” and 50”x124” spliced faces in some items. This product is appropriate for companies that have a veneer press.
3. Backed veneers: We offer paper backing, phenolic backing, polyflex backing, and two-ply wood backing on the veneers. Our standard sizes are 4’x8’ and 4’x10’. We can produce other sizes on request.
4. Prefinished veneers: We produce phenolic backed prefinished veneers in standard sizes of 4’x8’ and 4’x10’. Our standard finish is a polyurethane blend. On request, we produce a selection of melamine finishes and an IMO certified fire rated sheet with a melamine finish. Customers can press these sheets in a cold press. A hot press will make it difficult to remove the protective peel sheet.
5. Edgebanding: We carry edgebanding to match most of our stock items. We have fleece backed unfinished edgebanding and ABS backed prefinished edgebanding with our Groove finish. We can produce thick edgebanding up to 2.80mm on a roll. We stock 2.00mm edgebanding in some items.
If your requirements demand a different product, we can produce a variety of customized sheets and finishes to meet your needs.
We can offer the following advice on fabricating with our veneers. However, this is our advice only and it does not create any warranty or guarantee of performance. We assume the customer has the greater expertise on how to glue and finish wood veneers. As most of our veneers are porous, they may absorb a greater amount of glue and finish than a close-grained wood like maple. If you are pressing our unbacked veneers, consider using a glue extender to minimize glue bleed-through. Our birdseye and burl items have more open cracks and holes, just like any natural burl or birdseye. With these items, we strongly suggest using a glue extender, and dyeing the glue to match the veneer color. You can stain our veneers just like any other wood veneer. However, we do not suggest using a stain color that is significantly darker than the veneer color. The result will be white lines and a cloudy appearance. Light staining is appropriate and desirable in some colors as it will improve the light fastness of the veneer color. In finishing our veneers, the first sealer coat is critical as it must start to fill the pores of the veneer. Use a light sealer coat and allow it to penetrate the pores. Two light coats are better than one heavy coat. A heavy coat will tend to bridge the pores instead of fill them, and the final result will be white spots or lines in the finished product. Always use a UV inhibiting finish. Like any other wood, our veneers are sensitive to UV light and they will change color over time. As with any other wood, some colors will change faster than others. For example, natural cherry is more sensitive to UV light than maple, and the same will be true with our veneers. The customer must always do their own testing with their finish to determine whether the results are acceptable in their application.
The Architectural Woodwork Institute Quality Standards are a good guide to proper gluing and finishing procedures for any wood veneer. In our experience, 90% of problems with veneering are moisture related. It is imperative that the customer acclimate the veneer and substrate materials before fabricating, and control the relative humidity/moisture content at both the fabrication site and installation site. AWI procedures indicate that the woodworker should not install woodwork at a job site where the humidity is uncontrolled, and we certainly agree with this. Installing woodwork in an uncontrolled environment is an invitation for trouble. Please remember that with the increased use of water based glues and finishes, these are also sources of moisture for wood based panels, so the customer must follow proper procedures to allow drying of the panel. Trapping moisture in the panel normally results in a delamination or cracking in the finish. Moisture related issues can take months or even years to appear, depending on conditions at the job site. Wood will expand and contract as the relative humidity changes, and it can take several cycles of expansion and contraction before problems appear. Again, a properly controlled environment is the best way to minimize this issue.
