Ken Vaughan wrote on Jul 10
th, 2016 at 10:12am:
"Thick veneer" is the term used to describe the veneers of yesteryears. The term normally is for 1/16 up to 1/8 inch thick sheets. At 1/16 inch plan to pay 3-5 dollars a square foot for plain wood. For banding and segmentation separations, grain counts little.
Resaw and drum Sanders get into the discussion if you are going to use lots of thick veneers.
First of all Veneer
Full Definition of veneer
1: a thin sheet of a material: as a : a layer of wood of superior value or excellent grain to be glued to an inferior wood b : any of the thin layers bonded together to form plywood c : a plastic or porcelain coating bonded to the surface of a cosmetically imperfect tooth
2: a protective or ornamental facing (as of brick or stone)
3 : a superficial or deceptively attractive appearance, display, or effect : facade, gloss <a veneer of tolerance>
Veneer is a term for a covering, if your using a thin piece of wood between layers (segmenting) it's no longer veneer.Thin and thick are vague and relative terms as to be meaningless.
Common store bought sheets of Veneer are (1/28" to 1/40" even down to 1/64") as Ron pointed out, part of the reason for cutting your own veneer is so you can control the thickness for your application. Some store bought veneers in the above mentioned thickness's can be easily damaged simply handling them.
A veneer of 1/16" may be considered thick by industry standards, after all they are trying to maximize profits by getting the most yield out of each blank.
As mentioned above, Veneer is a term used for a protective or ornamental facing. It doesn't mean wood and it doesn't have a set thickness.
As someone who makes segmented turnings, I regularly resaw and sand thin pieces for my work. (they are only considered veneer if they are on the face).
This can be easily accomplished with a bandsaw and a drum sander. Using a sanding sled, you can sand to whatever thickness you desire.
Here is an ornament I made showing thin pieces made using the process I mentioned.
the width of the entire stripe is 1/8". As you can see in the close up, the outer thin strips are thin, uniform and approximately 1/32".
You can save money by cutting thin strips yourself and not having to buy retail veneer sheets. It's also beneficial to maintain color uniformity throughout the piece.