what is veneer wood

Wood veneer is a thin slice of natural wood that is typically pressed onto or laminated to thicker core materials such as plywood, particle board, and MDF to create structural panels to be used in place of thicker hardwood lumber. Veneers are made by peeling the trunk of a tree or by slicing large rectangular blocks of wood. They are used in woodworking to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors, and parts of furniture. Veneers can be plain sawn, quarter sawn, rift cut, or rotary cut and produce the many different grain patterns associated with each cut. There are also reconstituted or engineered wood veneers which are man-made but still natural wood. Wood veneers offer many advantages over traditional solid wood, including maximizing the use of a single log, making them more environmentally-friendly and affordable, and offering more choices since some types of wood are too expensive or unstable to be used in their solid form.