: Hi Grant

: Do you mean you get the grain to match lengthways? or mainly horizontally?

: I assume you get horizontal matching but do you get repetion of the unrolling
: veneer? I presume you do, like if you have a grain pattern or feature when
: the veneer unrolls, do you get it again?

: And assuming you do, have or could you ever considered bookmatching it? Like
: say you had 2 consecutive sheets(or say if the pattern was repeated in
: only one), and you ripped the sheet between the patterns. And you
: sealcoated both patterns w/ epoxy but with ONE side you continued to glue
: another sheet of junk 1/8 in ply on top w/ the sealcoat. Now turn this
: thicker sheet upside down, take up the big belt sander or plane or
: whatever and remove the original backing veneers.

: Depending on how carefully you do it, would it actually be possible to now
: have a pair of bookmatched panels?

: Now going back to the beginning, say you had 4 repetions in 8 or 10 foot long
: pcs of ply, cut and lay out the repetitions side by side and the bottom of
: them 1,2,3 and 4. Take pc 2 and 4 and lay them together to the side and
: put 1,3 toghether. Turn 2,4 180 degrees and put at the bottom of 1,3, so
: the ends touch so they're 16(20 w/ the 10ft) long.

: You have 1(to the top of upside dn number'4')beside '3'(to the top of upside
: dn'2'). Like laying on the floor you have 4 panels (say ea is 3' wide -
: 1ft tree) making a larger panel 6' by 20', with rightside numbers 1,3
: together and 4,2 together but turned 180.

: Now if you do the very first 'bookmatching' process with sheets 3 and 4(the
: DIAGONALS) then you have continuous bookmatched grain side to side AS WELL
: as LENGTHways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

: So If the veneer face is thick enough so it doesn't get damaged in the
: process, and if there isn't too much staining from the veneer glues, this
: might be a way to make the most dynamite grained stitch and glue kayak
: around. Like it could equal the matching on some musical instruments but
: on a 17 foot scale!!

: anyway some ideas for you grant

: I wonder if they would work? If so, i bet it would be worth the extra trouble
: if you wanted to sell real real expensive stitchers.

: -mick

If you had full size patterns, and if the repetition happened at More than say 30 in or so (guess at half the circumference at the widest kayak point), the hot trick would be to lay out patterns so that minimal wastage happened between the long pattern cuts. The centre joining cuts will likely book match, the mathc between the panels will be fairly to very close and there will be a perfect match on the keel also.

The cool thing about veneers is that they're thin so book matching can be repetitive and also there's no kerf loss(as theyr'e sliced?) further increasing the repetitive bookmatching possibility.

May be you can do it better on cheaper plywoods as the veneer glue is not so good so the separation will be more possible. BUt could you steam off the veneers?

-mick

sorry abt the *nm* post