2021-11-10
When buying engineered wood floor, what is the difference between rotary-cut veneer and plain sliced veneer? The plain sliced sure seems to be a lot more expensive, even for the same species.
This is a question that could make a whole semester`s worth of discussion. The short answer for here is: Flat cut or plain sliced veneer is a lot more work and a lot more involved from tree to veneer, so it costs a lot more. For rotary-cut veneer, envision a roll of paper towels being unwound from the holder. To cut the veneer, the log section (flitch) is mounted in something akin to a giant lathe. The knife is advanced into the spinning log a few thousandths of an inch per revolution (the thickness of the veneer required) and off comes the veneer in a huge continuous sheet. Just like a roll of paper towels being unwound, the log unwraps into yards and yards of veneer. Quick and cheap, but ugly.
As for the plain cut, the log is mounted onto a giant slicer and passed over a huge knife. Like a slicing machine at the local butcher shop cutting roast beef or cheese, each pass of the log cuts one slice of veneer. Each of those slices is caught and individually stacked in exactly the order it is cut from the flitch. Then it is all dried and graded to sell. Each slice keeps its place relative to its neighbor throughout the entire process. This is slow, painstaking and, hence, expensive. But it is much prettier!
For the rotary cutting veneer, the swirly grain pattern is pretty surreal. But, for some applications, like the center panels of the cabinet doors, I think the rotary grain pattern works OK. Ho