Creating dyed veneer

Other Versions
Spanish How to dye a batch of veneer and get uniform color throughout. June 20, 2001

Q.
I need to achieve a color dyed veneer which has the color throughout. I don't want to buy it from a supplier since I am planning mass production and want low costs.

Forum Responses
You will have to dye the veneer in the raw flitch form. In order to get the color throughout the wood, you will have to soak the veneer flitches in a vat. Remember, in order for the flitches to all be the same color, you will have to dye them in lots. So make sure your vat is big enough to hold a large amount of liquid and the overflow when the veneer is added. Also make sure you mix all of the dye at one time so the hold flitch is the same color.

Locke Wilde, forum technical advisor

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The whole flitch is dyed at one time, *after* it is sliced. A shelving or suspension method often used is thin piano wire that the leaves of veneer are laid on to keep the leaves apart so the stain can circulate around the veneer. Consistent color requires all veneer leaves in a single flitch or job be died at once.