VANEERING, or Pincering, is the art of laying thin leaves or slices of a superior kind of wood upon an inferior, so as to give the whole the appearance of the more valuable kind. A more complicated kind of veneering or inlaid work, in which pieces of various kinds of wood, and sometimes of horn, ivory, and metal, are arranged so as to produce an ornamental effect, is commonly called Marquetry.

The wood intended for veneering is first sawn out into slices or leaves, about a line thick. In order to saw them, the block or planks are placed upright in a kind of vice or sawing-press. See SAW and SAW-MILL. These slices are afterwards cut into slips and fashioned divers ways, according to the design proposed; then the joints being carefully adjusted, and the pieces brought down to their proper thickness, with several planes for the purpose, they are glued down on a ground or block of dry wood, with good strong glue. The pieces being thus joined and glued, the work, if small, is put in a press; if large, it is laid on the bench, covered with a board, and pressed down with poles, or pieces of wood, one end of which reaches to the ceiling of the room, and the other bears on the boards. When the glue is quite dry, they take it out of the press and finish it; first with little planes, then with divers scrapers, some of which resemble rasps, which take off dents left by the planes. When sufficiently scraped, the work is polished with the skin of a sea-dog, wax, and a brush and polisher of shave-grass.