My reply to this:
I think we all tend to forget, Neil. But it is critical, depending on what look we would like to get.

Neil also said:
I’m a commercial veneer user rarely resawing. I find that, with quarter sliced veneer, slip matching or a slip and turn works best, for grains and light refraction as you mentioned.
My comment: On the money, as I expect, Neil! It is amazing the difference this can make.

Neil continued:
With rotary sliced, or the other zillion types of slices, the book matching seems to win out as playing with grain patterns is just plain fun.

I say: So much fun, we should have to *pay* to do this, we enjoy it so much! Well, this might be a little extreme…

Neil continued:
Hey Al, I’m with you on the book match here, SO…..send off that slip matched pair to me and …………I’ll book match’em on my end.:)

Thanks, Neil. As Mark suggests, though, I will try slip matching the original boards. You will get a chance to see why I did not try it that way: The outer surfaces of the resawn panels are the original board’s surface, and the spalting pattern does not match as well on the inside surface to the outer surface.

My reply to this: I will take another look at the original panels, Mark. I concentrated so much on the new veneers that I ran out of time last night.

Mark Mazzo also said: What are your plans for the veneer? Are you making solid panels or actually veneering to a substrate?

And I say: This one is also up in the air, Mark. I must explain: I don’t have a vacuum veneer press, but I will be experimenting to see how well I do using MDF and cauls, with the edges tapered ever so slightly to distribute the pressure evenly from the center to the edges. If this works, I will probably use the veneers I show in this post, glued to a plywood substrate. If this does not work well, then I will go back to the original plan: Use the original resawn solid hardwood panels as 1/4-inch panels in the frames.

Thanks……….very cool. Appreciate the extra work. Write up is super, we kinda forget about the light refraction.

I’m a commercial veneer user rarely resawing. I find that with quarter sliced veneer slip matching or a slip and turn works best, for grains and light refraction as you mentioned. With rotary sliced, or the other zillion types of slices, the book matching seems to win out as playing with grain patterns is just plain fun.

Hey Al, I’m with you on the book match here, SO…..send off that slip matched pair to me and …………I’ll book match’em on my end.:)

Thanks Al………..Neil

Nice comparison on the panel options.

With this set of veneers I think I like the book match better (notwithstanding the possible differences in the look after finishing as you rightly pointed out).

I’m not sure if the original veneer choices you had would be a better slip match. You should take a look to see what you think.

What are your plans for the veneer? Are you making solid panels or actually veneering to a substrate?

–Mark

The Craftsman’s Path