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I watched an episode of roy underhill/s on PBS , he had steve latta hammer veneering a box with a walnut veneer he coated both sides of the veneer with HHG before using a veneer hammer to squeeze out the excess glue. Has any one used this method for veneering a headstock on a gtr ?? I/ve never tried it . Have always used titebond or white cabnetmakers glue. Thanks

You can hammer veneer any piece you want. I frequently hammer veneer purfling lines together. It works very well on standard thickness veneer. Much more problematic on the thickness of veneer that are usually found on headstocks though.

When I saw that episode of The Woodwright's Shop, I too wanted to hammer veneer pegheads. It just seems like one of those esoteric processes instrument makers like to do. Then I remembered that a flat caul works just fine (even with hide glue). I still want to do it but will probably never get around to making a hammer. It is my understanding that hammer veneering is ideally suited for the thicker veneer used on pegheads. Traditional hammer veneering would have been done with sawn veneers not the super thin slices we think of today when we think veneer.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

It/s super easy to make your own veneer hammer I used ash, an a scrap of leftover 1/4in alum or brass.

I saw that episode also and what interested me was the use of HHG on both sides of the veneer and it's use as a pore filler. Slather HHG on, then after rub down, card scrape it off. It never really occurred to me to use HHG as a pore filler.

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I've done quite a bit of hammer veneering, notably on Hi Fi loudspeaker cabinets. You have to coat both surfaces of the veneer otherwise the wet glue on one side will just cause the veneer to curl away from your substrate. Glue on the top surface also has the added benefit of going some way to filling the pores. It won't do it in one go though. HHG shrinks a lot. I've also tried hammer veneering thicker sawn veneers. I didn't find that easy at all. Perhaps there's a part of the method that I was missing.

Veneers have been sliced for a very long time. Some species can be sliced up to about 1/10" thick.

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John