Can I get locally produced wood veneers in California?

August 16, 2015 1:23 PM

I'm looking for (small quantities) of wood veneer strips from wood grown in California. Is such a thing possible? It could be new or reclaimed, but I want to make a ring so any re-used would have to be amenable to that. Additional bonus points for wood from the central coast area. Is having veneer manufactured from locally sourced wood a not insanely expensive option?
posted by sevenless to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Exotic Hardwoods. The salvaged Claro walnut is Californian, and perhaps others are, too.
posted by the Real Dan at 1:38 PM on August 16, 2015

Anyone with a well-tuned bandsaw could set up a fence and cut thin layers of any hunk of wood you like. They'd probably be at least twice the thickness of commercially sliced veneer, but I don't know why that would be a problem for your purposes. It shouldn't be very expensive at all; it's just a few minutes' work.
posted by jon1270 at 2:09 PM on August 16, 2015

Can you explain how you intend to make a ring out of veneer? Will you laminate several layers into a certain thickness, or...?
posted by werkzeuger at 2:46 PM on August 16, 2015

Response by poster: You laminate a strip of veneer to itself around an appropriately sized mold to form the ring shape then cut and sand it down to the width (length?) you want.
posted by sevenless at 5:34 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Where are you located? Would San Luis Obispo source meet your wants? Are you familiar with SLO Makerspace ? If you're in the area you could do your own woodwork at the Makerspace with the tools available there. Can you specify the length, width and thickness of what you want? What species of wood? In addition to Claro walnut I've got some other locally grown wood on hand and can send veneer pieces to you. My email address is in my profile.
posted by X4ster at 11:19 PM on August 16, 2015

You laminate a strip of veneer to itself around an appropriately sized mold to form the ring shape...

Ah. For that, thinner is probably better.
posted by jon1270 at 3:58 AM on August 17, 2015

Ah. For that, thinner is probably better.

Right...I wonder if the shaving from a sharp hand plane could actually work for this? Most commercial veneer I've worked with could not be bent into a finger-sized diameter without some help from steam.
posted by werkzeuger at 9:06 AM on August 17, 2015