M&P Fabrication: Wood Veneer Experimentation

After researching different veneering techniques, tools, and glues, I decided that this new, non-toxic "Heat-Lock iron on" glue would best suit my purpose, which is to work with small pieces and different shapes. I purchased sample packs and glue from veneersupplies.com . Their sister site, joewoodworker.com, had some of the most useful advice.

For my first experiment, I tried something that I really did not expect would work. I wanted to see if the veneer would be flexible enough to wrap smoothly around a dome shape. I purposely picked a very warped, flawed piece of walnut burl to see what the limits were. Cutting veneer in anything but a straight line is very tricky, you have to be really careful and give yourself an allowance. First I hacked at it with a cheap circle cutter and you can see, it wasn't too successful:

The glue gets liberally on both the veneer and the substrate, then dries (it takes a while, at least 30 minutes to an hour), and works best with two coats. It is water soluble, and looks like really thick chocolate milk. I ironed the veneer to the dome with a paper towel between the iron and the veneer. It was necessary to give the piece a lot of steam to make it flex, but the steam worked much better than plain water. Its still pretty bumpy, but once it is sanded down it looks good considering how it started out:

For the second experiment I decided to see how well a piece of straight grain veneer can be wrapped around different angles and curves. I heard that straight grain is easier than burl if you bend parallel to the grain, but because the glue I used was waterbased, it did not work at all with the first type I tried. The veneers were not labeled, but I think it may be ash. Apparently this wood is very porous and the glue I used was absorbed into one side of the veneer and not the other, causing it to curl and crack beyond repair regardless of whether it was taped or not. If I were to use it in the future I would use hide glue or contact glue.

The veneer cracked even more when I ironed it to the shaped piece.

My uncle said that cherry was denser and might work with the glue I was using. When I tried it, it did work very well, except that it cracked only at the seam where it had been matched in the factory. But it took to the shape very well. I found that applying a great deal of steam with the paper towel between the iron and the veneer allowed for much tighter angles than without.

For the third experiment I tried wrapping a differnt kind of burl that I could not identify around the same shape. It pretty much worked the same way, was a little harder to get around angles but that may be because the piece was thicker than the cherry.

Trimming the sides with an exacto knife does not look as nice as sanding them down to the MDF.

Next I tried adding a color with clear varnish, and just clear varnish to the different woods.

I wanted to see if the veneer would stick to plastic, so I tried wrapping it around a high heel. I sanded the heel with 80 grit first. It cracked a lot because of the severe shape, but it stuck very well to the plastic. You just have to hold the iron on each section long enough to really heat the glue.