Bruce Mack
Established Member
I began a serving tray many months ago as a gift for a friend. She had sent me a photo of a tray, wondering if it was worth the price. Incautiously, I answered that I could gift her with better. Wrong. Though I had never veneered, I resawed curly oak and thinned it to about 1/16 " in fits and starts using cabinet scrapers. I had read about using dried PVA glue and a hot iron as a substitute for wet veneering and did some testing that showed it was applicable for my small project. After veneering the back of a 3/8" baltic birch panel successfully, I jointed my face veneer with a handplane and joined the edges with CA glue before applying 2 coats of PVA glue to both the veneer and the panel. The veneer curled as expected from the moisture in the glue but it never uncurled. I misted the face of the veneer to relax it and began the hot ironing from center to periphery. Things quckly went south. The photos show the veneer and the cracked panel serving its first and last salsa before I tossed it into the bin. I still have to make my gift, this time with a thin solid wood bottom.
