Basket Crafting

Veneer Basket Making

Veneer is a small thin sheet of wood, which is generally attached to other woods or cardboards for stability and extensive usage.

The ideal veneers which are multi functional and easily available are 10 mil paperbacked, phenolic, 3-ply and 22.2 mil "bubble-free" flexible wood veneers. These veneers are generally sold to furniture makers, boat builders, display companies and other wood craftsmen.

There are almost 250+ species of Hardwood and Softwood veneers, including Alder, Beech, Birch, Bubinga, Butternut, Cherry, Cypress, Fir Douglas, Elm (including Italian & Carpathian Burl), Hickory, Jatoba, Lacewood, Makore, Maple, Oak (including Red & White), Padauk, Pearwood, Purpleheart, Sycamore, Teak, Walnut and Zebrawood.

Veneer looks great if the strips of veneer in different shades or in a combination of two are applied on a cardboard basket. Veneer bases are also appreciated. You can make your own veneered basket by joining the strips of veneer onto the basket.

This is a little technical and needs proper instructions. Generally the surfaces are glued together with the use of a veneer press, either a vacuum, cold or hot press using white or yellow glue, this is the preferred method of applying wood veneer.

If press is not available, good contact cement may be used. Look for contact cement with the highest level of solids and follow the adhesive manufacturer instructions.(Flammable contact cement most often works better than nonflammable.)

While paper-backed veneer can be glued to an exterior surface only if an epoxy application is used. Veneer must be bonded to a suitable substrate of a reliable quality.

MDF (medium density fiberboard) is the most stable substrate, followed by industrial particleboard, veneer-core plywood, and the least stable substrate is hardwood.

When veneering over bending plywood materials, we have found that laminating a 1/8” MDF over the surface makes it more stable (1/8” MDF can bend around a 2’ - 3’ radius).

Veneered baskets need special care as veneer is more likely to distort and damage with the extreme environmental changes. Chipping off veneer is another problem especially if it is already attached to some hard surface before you get it to cut it.

Veneer basket making is not very common, but is getting in practice very fast due to its laminated, shiny surface the baskets give a very expensive look.

Veneer baskets are good to be gifted to men, wood crafters, gardeners, crafters, mechanics, to gift tool kits; as they are strong enough to hold heavy object unlike contemporary card or paper baskets.

Veneer baskets can also be used to make the fruit baskets, but make sure you tell the person to remove the fruit as soon as possible, as it is not aerated and the fruit can rot easily.

So next time if you are looking for a basket to hold a few kgs of weight and does not get damaged or distorted, then go for the veneer baskets, but there is an extreme possibility that you won’t find it that easily.

May be you have to built it yourself. So ready for veneering??