Solid Wood Furniture Versus Veneer

Some makers use both types of construction in building custom furniture and custom cabinets. Now lets look at these two options and their strong and weak points.

Solid wood furniture, this means all exposed parts are made of the same species of all natural wood, with no other materials included, such as plywood or particle board.

Advantages of Solid Wood:

Practical. The durability of solid wood furniture is high on the list. Scratches, dings, dents, water marks, stains can all be repaired. Obviously, the worse the damage the more expensive, but it is certainly easier and less expensive than veneer furniture.

Disadvantages of Solid Wood:

Split. When exposed to extreme atmospheric conditions, solid wood furniture will expand or contract, and may split along the grain of the wood. Some makers use a "floating case system" in which table and case-piece surfaces are attached using a bracket method or elongated holes for screws to slide. This enables furniture to respond to environmental changes without damage. As a rule, though, avoid exposing pieces to strong sunlight or direct heat sources.

Good quality veneer furniture will have a solid core and the legs, posts, doors or drawer fronts will be straight-grain solid wood.

Advantages of Veneer:

Beautiful. The best, most interesting logs are cut into veneer. This is largely an economic decision--sellers and veneer makers can make more money from a high quality log sliced into veneer than they can from sawing it into boards. And certain cuts, such as burls, are structurally unsound in 'the solid'. These beautiful woods can rarely be utilized unless they're sliced into veneer

Environmentally kind. Saw timber is typically sawn into 1" thick boards. The saw cuts a kerf between boards 1/4" thick that winds up as sawdust. Veneer is not cut from the log but sliced with a knife (like lunch meat) into 1/32" leaves or sheets. That produces 32 veneer surfaces for every 1 that is gotten from a board and with no wood wasted as sawdust another 8 sheets where the saw blade would have gone. That's 40 surfaces of wood veneer for every 1 of solid wood.

Creates new design possibilities. Since veneer is so thin and is glued to a stable

Stable. Since veneer is glued to a stable substrate it produces surfaces not prone to warp or splitting or seasonal movement.

Substrates. Plywood and medium density fiberboard, the substrates used for some furniture, are made from low quality trees. This means a market is provided the landowner for these trees. This leads to better forests over time since the trees remaining grow better and faster with less competition for resources. Its like weeding your garden only a lot bigger.

Disadvantages Veneer:

Thin. This is more of a problem for the builder than the buyer. Sand-through in preparation for finishing is 'touching the third rail' of woodworking. Such pieces are almost impossible to repair and frequently involve 're-design' (as in cutting off the sanded through area) or making a speculative, difficult repair which can be difficult to hide. Once the piece is completed thickness of the veneer is of no concern.

We at Berkshire Furniture believe that there are good in both kinds. It all depends on who is the manufacturer and how it is built. When buying your piece of furniture, always ask if it is real wood veneers or laminated imitation of wood. If the surface of table top or any wood case top looks Perfect and unreal, then it is most probably not a wood veneer. Pores, scuffs and wood knots can be easily found even on wood veneers if the veneer comes from wood. These pores, nicks and scuffs are the signature of nature and proves to the buyer that yes, this is a slice of real wood that is veneered over this top.