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Veneer Production
Sawn timber is typically sawn into 1” thick boards. The saw cuts a kerf between boards
1/4” thick that winds up as sawdust.
Plainsawn
Quartersawn
Riftsawn
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 sawblade would have gone.
That’s 40 surfaces of wood veneer for every 1 of solid wood.
The slicing process is composed of several techniques: rotary slicing, quarter slicing, plain
slicing, rift slicing and half round slicing. Depending on the species selected, the selected
slicing technique will produce a very distinctive type of grain.