![]() ![]() Unless you're willing to risk paying for a dud, never buy a guitar on specs alone. Regardless of whether the Takamine is veneered, they are a reputable company who make good quality guitars for the price - but you'll only find out for sure by trying it out. You could find a guitar made from the finest hardwood, that you just don't like the feel or sound of. You could find a laminate guitar that plays beautifully. ![]() So make your buying decision based on what it sounds like and how it feels to play (OK, most of us also care what it looks like). You don't buy a guitar for the satisfaction of knowing what wood it's made of. When you're buying a guitar it's interesting, but academic. But a typical laminate material for guitars has more than two layers.Īll of this is important knowledge if you're building a guitar. Strictly speaking it would be a laminate of two layers. Whether a layer of solid wood with a veneer could be described as "laminate" is not really well defined. ![]() However figured wood is not necessarily veneer - solid walnut furniture is made solid soundboards are made with figured wood.Ī veneer would interfere with the vibration of a soundboard, and hence it would be dishonest to describe a veneered soundboard as being solid wood. Think of walnut furniture (or just look at the photograph of the Takemine guitar).įigured wood is often used as a veneer (for woodwork in general, not just musical instruments) because it makes less wood go further using cheaper less visually attractive wood for interior structure. More names come up now and then, and on a few occasions, I've even had to coin a new name for a veneer figure that defied classification.Figured wood is wood with grain that is not straight, that has been cut along the grain to reveal pretty patterns. Other figures include roe, rippling and finger roll. ![]() In addition to the names listed and discussed here, there are some very unusual figure names, such as pippy (looks like measles), drapé (looks like draping vines), and plum pudding (looks like elongated dark plums). I've seen plenty of veneer sold under the "wrong" name - wrong simply because it disagrees with my own veneer vernacular. Second, veneer figure nomenclature varies from country to country and is even different among veneer sellers and users in different regions. Every tree grows a little differently and within a single flitch, you often find an entire range of figures. First, simple names for a few common figure types are barely sufficient to cover all the possible examples of figure in any species of veneer. However, the names I've given in the captions aren't necessarily universal for two reasons. This is more of a problem when mail ordering veneer because you can't see what you're getting before you buy it.The illustrations of distinctively figured veneers shown in the photos below are intended to acquaint would-be veneer buyers with some of the more common trade names for some conventional veneer figures. But they don't always know what to ask for sometimes the trade names of special veneers can be confusing. Woodworkers aiming to add a distinguished look to their work or elevate a project's overall appearance and value often want unusually figured or exotic veneers. For example, rotary slicing bird's-eye maple creates the most round, perfect eye figure. Some grain figures are revealed or enhanced by being sliced in a particular way. Part of the reason for this variety is the high degree of control the veneer mill has in the way a log is sliced. This article first appeared in the July/August 1991 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine and is reprinted with their permission.Īlthough many wood species are available as plain sawn or quarter sawn lumber, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the vast range of grain figures available in veneers. "Figured Veneers" was written by Jim Dumas the owner of Certainly Wood. ![]()
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