Veneers
There are many timber species suitable for the production of wood veneers. Any commercially available wood veneer can be specified as part of the Designer doorset solution.

Wood veneers are obtained by slicing or peeling a log to produce a thin layer of wood of a selected uniform thickness, usually 0.6mm. Selected logs are debarked and cut through their length into halves or quarters known as ‘flitches’. These flitches are steamed for several days depending on their species before they are sliced into veneer ‘sheets’. The individual veneer sheets are the same width as the flitch, so as cutting proceeds sheets will change gradually in size. Each sheet, whilst having the appearance qualities of the flitch will be of very slightly different appearance from both preceding and following sheet.

After cutting, the reassembled flitches are cured and dried. The job of the veneer matcher, which is highly skilled, is to use the available raw material to produce combinations of veneers or ‘lay-ons’ in accordance with the given appearance specification. Sheets will then be guillotined for width and height so that when joined in the specified style they will produce lay-ons only slightly larger than the required panel size. Lay-ons are produced by joining the veneer sheets edge to edge with adhesive or tape.

Often lay-ons are individually numbered so that, for example, the lay-on for a matched through overpanel face is identified with its door leaf face at all points in the production sequence.

Unless special requirements are called for, a reasonable veneer match between ‘en-suite’ doors will be provided at our discretion. Our minimum flitch widths are 94mm for quarter cut lay-ons and 141mm for crown cut lay-ons.

There are many timber species suitable for the production of decorative wood veneers – samples can be provided, which are also useful for control purposes during the project. The technique of cutting veneers will substantially affect the appearance of the end product. Unless specified otherwise, doors will be supplied with veneer over lipping using crown cut and book matched veneers.

The principal methods of veneer cutting are:

Quarter cut
The log is cut along its length to form four separate flitches. These are then sliced at 90° to the growth rings to provide sheets which have a striped or planked appearance when assembled.

Crown cut
The log is sliced along its length, resulting in a figured appearance with less vertical emphasis than Quarter cut.

Rotary cut
The log is peeled to give a continuous veneer, generally used for constructional plywood. Veneer sheets cannot be matched except for general colour characteristics and their appearance is wild and flowery.