Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Solid Wood vs. Veneer

One of the most common questions I get asked on the sales floor of my shop or via internet selling channels is "Is it solid wood?" Usually this is in reference to a dining table or perhaps a sideboard or chest of drawers, and usually the answer is "no, it's a veneer". Evidently, this is usually the WRONG answer, resulting in a downcast look from the in-person customer and a dropping off the face of the earth from the virtual customer.

Just last week, a woman living in NYC emailed to inquire about a specific dining table. After a few emails back and forth, the inevitable question popped up: "Is it solid wood"? I replied "no, it's a veneer". She wrote back "well, we like the look of the table a lot but we're really only looking for tables that are solid wood".

The table in question

Since she had provided me with her phone number, I decided to call her and probe a little bit and see what her her desire for a solid wood table was based on. As I suspected, it turned out that she was under the impression that solid wood tables were somehow "better quality" then their veneered counterparts, and that most pieces made by major Danish designers such as Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl were made from solid wood.

I told her that yes, there is ONE Finn Juhl dining table that I know of that's made from solid teak - however, practically every other mid century dining table that I can think of, even those by big name designers including Juhl and Hans Wegner, are veneered (the glaring exception to this being some 1950s American modern furniture, such as that produced by Heywood Wakefield and designed by Paul McCobb and Russell Wright - but these pieces, although solid wood, were produced from lower cost woods such as maple and birch).

I went on to explain that while solid wood is all very nice in theory, in practice, it really doesn't make that much of a difference when compared to a quality piece of veneered furniture. In fact, if they aren't cared for properly, solid wood tables and case pieces can actually present a problem, in that solid wood is MUCH more prone to warping and cracking than veneered wood. Other than that, the only other real advantage I can think of to solid wood is aesthetic (which, even then, is in the eye of the beholder), and the fact that solid wood pieces are a bit easier to bring back from severe damage than veneered pieces are, since you don't have to worry about sanding through the veneer. However, the process for dealing with severe damage such as a cigarette burn or a deep gouge is exactly the same with a solid wood piece and a veneered piece - you still have to fill the void and color match the fill to the rest of the finish.

So, when dealing with mid century modern furniture, the issue of solid wood vs. veneer is almost a non-issue. Solid wood simply doesn't offer that many advantages, and pieces that are solid wood are not particularly worth more than those of similar quality that are veneered. As I said above, it pretty much boils down to an aesthetic/taste issue more than anything else. By the same token, some people may like teak wood better than walnut, but one is not inherently better or worse than the other.

Having said that, being able to distinguish solid wood furniture from veneered furniture IS a useful skill when looking for vintage furniture for your home, and there are a few simple ways to distinguish between the two (keep in mind that when someone selling a piece of furniture, especially on a venue such as craigslist or eBay, claims that a piece of furniture is solid wood, there's a very good chance that it isn't).

The first (this applies mainly to tables) is the presence of edge banding, as you can see on the detail of a Hans Wegner dining table below:


Edge banding simply serves to cover up the unfinished edge of the piece of veneered wood that comprises the main tabletop. Edge banding can range from as thin as 1/8" up to over 1" in thickness. Thicker edge banding on a table is a definite sign of quality. Even if you didn't know that the table above was designed by Hans Wegner, the fact that it's banded in a 3/4" piece of solid teak would give you a clue to its quality. If a piece of furniture has a bullnose edge like the one on this table, but you can't find any evidence of edge banding, the piece is probably solid wood.

Another very easy way to tell solid wood (once again, mainly for tables) is to look at the underside of the piece - does it look like the same piece of wood as the table top? If not, then it's probably veneered! Veneered tops will usually have a nicer wood on top (such as teak, walnut or rosewood) and a less expensive/less attractive veneer on the bottom.

The third and final way is to look at the edge of the piece of wood and see if the graining on the top carries through on the edge - the way marbling does in a good piece of steak. If this is not the case, you are looking at a veneered piece. Below, you can see the detail of the edge of a solid teak coffee table designed by Finn Juhl to get a visual on what I'm talking about:


While a solid wood piece is not necessarily better or more valuable than a veneered piece of comparable quality, the presence of solid wood in a piece does give you an idea of the quality, even if you don't know anything else about the piece. The fact that a piece is solid wood might also potentially give you a clue that the piece is handmade, or at least custom made, since so few factory made pieces of mid century furniture (apart from the major exceptions, as noted above) were made of solid wood. So, while the presence of solid wood is definitely a tool that you can use to determine the quality of a piece of furniture, it should not be the sole determinant in your search, unless you have very deep pockets and a considerable amount of time on your hands. Likewise, if you unexpectedly find yourself with a piece of solid wood furniture, think of it as a bonus, and a nice selling point if you ever want or need to re-sell the piece!

60 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post - question for you: if a scratch on a teak table reveals white/yellow interior is this another way to tell that it is veneer? What would a deep scratch on a solid table look like?

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alex said...

AMAZING INFO!! YOU MAY HAVE SAVED MY JOB WITH THIS POST HAHA! I WOULD EXPLAIN BUT ITS COMPLICATED AND I NEED TO GET BACK TO WORK. THANK YOU.

shimmer said...

This info is gold!

Debbie-lee said...

Hi,
I have a teak vaneer table I would like to know how to remove the original coating it seems to have come off in places where maybe a plastic tablecloth has been on it, its in mint condition apart from that some places look a little shiny then some don't please help...

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Katie Schenk said...

I followed this post eagerly, both because it was the info I was looking for, but also because I wanted to find out if you managed to convince her. Did she buy?

Enrico said...

Thank you for this great post. I have noticed a similar propensity for some to look askance at laminate top furniture from the mid-century in much the same way that your post indicates people often view veneered furniture. I see laminates as part of the evolution of mid-century design; a time when designers and manufacturers were finding uses for new materials in various ways. I mean, do we look down upon an Eames molded plywood chair because it is basically a multi-layered veneer? Not usually.

Anonymous said...

I don't know too much about mid-century construction, but i did buy a desk recently that had a veneered construction and a laminate top. I was confused and wrote off the laminate as a modification from the original. The only thing that got me was that the laminate top had a leaf system. I thought "why do that to laminate?". From your post im thinking it mIght be original? And, yes, i felt like i was paying a lot for something that i thought was modified from the original.

Anonymous said...

These are very beautiful pieces. Thanks for sharing them. I'm looking into buying some wooden furniture in Spring Mills PA for our new home there. I hope I can find something similar to the veneer.

lyssa said...

Thanks for this post. I just shared it on my Facebook page - so many people ask this question and this was a wonderful explanation:

https://www.facebook.com/OffMainEllicottCity

^j@sm!ne^ said...

Great information! Many customers in Malaysia also have limited knowledge on the type of woods and the quality :(

Unknown said...

20 years ago I found and restored a 1920's Grigsby Gunnow radio cabinet that had been sitting in a ramshackle shed for at least 40 years. It was built with a mix of solid wood legs (turned) and veneer over plywood plus veneer over solid oak (frame only). It was the veneer over the solid oak that had to be removed. This veneered part was cherry that had been stained mohogany. The burled walnut veneer that had been layered onto solid oak trim on the cabinet doors was intact less most of its shellac thickness. I hand sanded it and also used an electric profile sander to clean off the shellac and any marks/ stains as far as possible on the whole piece. I then stained it with a custom cherry/dark walnut finish I mixed and have never shellacd it (would not use polyurethane on this as I like it better with a more original type finish- just never learned what they originally used at Grigsby G.-plan to shellac or hot shellac if I get around to finding out what they used).

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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Useful information! Saw another article regarding solid wood and veneer. Hope this help too.

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Jennifer Smith said...

Thank you for this great post. I have noticed a similar propensity for some to look askance at laminate top furniture from the mid-century in much the same way that your post indicates people often view veneered furniture.thanks
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The New York Escapist said...

How do you clean a veneer Danish table? I was told not to use oil? thanks!

Unknown said...

oil will remove venieer , its stupid
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Ashton of Dressu said...

It is nice to see vintage furniture and the wood still in amazing condition. All there is to do is to use a scroll saw so to re-apply varnish or stain!

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Unknown said...

Love this explanation, made me think twice about buying a Veneer piece! I do have a question for anyone in the group if you remove the veneer is the wood underneath sand-able and stainable?

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Erik Himmel said...

I discovered this post only yesterday. I see you’ve thought about Solid Wood vs. Veneer earlier than us. But I don’t expect you to end your discussion on the specific matter so soon. Can’t you please share more of your insights into it. Really, our neighbor groups who visit our website Spottingpro oftentimes would be happy. Thanks a lot!

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