The Hard Way

You know those folks that do something the hard way just because its hard, or the hip thing to do? Ya, the guy who carves a cabinet out of one chunk of wood with fully functional hinges and drawer guides. Cause, I certainly don't have anything better to do and everyone wants one of those. And the ones who just don't know better, and do it the hard way. Im not sure which is worse.

According to some hosers that sell lumber, this wood is exotic. Not quite. Peruvian Walnut, as opposed to Fijian Walnut, or Thai Walnut. The difference from the two suppliers in the valley (Sierra and Mcbeath) was a hip hopping 3 dollars a board foot. Who's ever heard Peru to be exotic anyway?

Having never huffed the "exotic dust" of Peru, we decided to give this wood a go. We sold Leslie on it and have been looking back the whole time (should have gone Thai).

This photo is of an in house veneer we laid up on Thursday. We needed a panel with no movement. Wood is no different than any substrate, being exposed to certain elements, it grows and shrinks, and needs allowance. The movement is across the grain and a large panel like this one would move too much. The idea with a thin layer, such as a veneer, is it won't move.

We called around to our trusty suppliers. Nada. So we made our own. Usually in the past, contact cement (no different than shoe goo) has been the preferred method. But fearing the seams would curl, we called Tad from Dutchman and he recomended Titebond III. Good stuff.

After days of splitting and sanding wood into the thin veneer, and some evenly applied pressure for a while, it came out looking like a 90 dollar sheet of veneer. Better than expected. That was alot of work. I may have made 6 bucks an hour. Mmmm, thai walnuts.