I'm having a similar issue with an 1860s "knockdown" cupboard. My parents bought it from our great-great aunt's estate sale, and had it professionally and meticulously restored in 1990. At the time it was appraised for 10k. From documents found wedged between the pieces, it appears the cupboard has always "lived" in the same general area of Ohio.
In 2001 they moved to Texas and took it with them. They brought it back to Ohio and gave it to me last year. I couldn't believe how bad it looked! All of the mahogany veneer is shrinking and cracked. When they bought it originally, the wood was covered in a dozen layers of paint (proving that every generation has someone who loves to paint over beautiful wood), but was in generally good condition. I don't know if the veneer is even salvageable at this point, or how much it would cost to be professionally restored again.
Age related Shrinkage (not the kind my wife complains of)
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phil
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Re: Age related Shrinkage (not the kind my wife complains of
Hide glue is often used for veneer because it has the ability to be ironed on, the heat will soften it, the other issue with using white glue to glue veneer is that it can sometimes bleed through resulting in wood that you just can't finish without the glue showing.
if the lifting is minor you could try the old trick with a clothes iron, go delicate and be aware thatt especially if the piece is shellac it might also be affected by heat.
in certain circumstances you can ues a bit of crazy glue, I shudder to recommend it though , often restorers will want you to use hide glue for repairs because one of the beautiful things about hide glue is that it is reversible, warm it up and stuff comes apart, so it might in fact be possible to lift your veneer.
often when veneers are done a veneer press is used which can exibit tremendous force on the piece , and there are modern veneer glues that are good. obviuusly if it were a table you'd need to take the top off to put it in a veneer press or it would crush it. You can come up with your own ways to clamp and sometimes a strongback helps , which can just be a bent 2x4. In some circumstances I shoot a bit of glue under the veneer with a syringe. i had to buy 1000 needles as that is the minimum and they are 1mm in diameter. thick enough to get glue through.
You may have a tough time reattaching the veneer without needing to refinish the piece it depends if it is just a little corner lifting or something more serious. It can be fixed for sure, everything can, try not to loose the pieces, even if they break off put them in a safe place, so long as you have all the bits, don't worry too much if the veneer is a little buckled , it will pull flat with clamping.
they do have threading machiens that put a fine thread on the veneer , much like dental floss. it zig zags and you can lay up intricate patterns and do things like book matching and fine details. If you are working on this sort of intricate veneer be especially careful.
if you have missing bits you can replace with similar wood. depending on the piece a quick and dirty way is to fill the void with a laquer stick, you can heat them and fill the void with it by melting it in , alternatively if it isn't a valuable piece you can sometimes fill the area with appropriately died wood filler, then scratch lines in it to resembel the wood grain and then refill. you might do this a couplle of times to get an interesting effect and you have to get the color just right. There is a bit of an at to some of these repairs and it isn't too hard to find some less valuable piece to practice on , you can even steal veneer from some other antique and move it to the piece you are working on. I think really cold temperatures can also affec the glue. I hear of one guy that claimed he could put a piece outside in really cold weather and farm the veneer from it when it is really cold, he would kind of knock it and break the bond since at the cold temperature it is brittle. dry ice might work as well.
if the lifting is minor you could try the old trick with a clothes iron, go delicate and be aware thatt especially if the piece is shellac it might also be affected by heat.
in certain circumstances you can ues a bit of crazy glue, I shudder to recommend it though , often restorers will want you to use hide glue for repairs because one of the beautiful things about hide glue is that it is reversible, warm it up and stuff comes apart, so it might in fact be possible to lift your veneer.
often when veneers are done a veneer press is used which can exibit tremendous force on the piece , and there are modern veneer glues that are good. obviuusly if it were a table you'd need to take the top off to put it in a veneer press or it would crush it. You can come up with your own ways to clamp and sometimes a strongback helps , which can just be a bent 2x4. In some circumstances I shoot a bit of glue under the veneer with a syringe. i had to buy 1000 needles as that is the minimum and they are 1mm in diameter. thick enough to get glue through.
You may have a tough time reattaching the veneer without needing to refinish the piece it depends if it is just a little corner lifting or something more serious. It can be fixed for sure, everything can, try not to loose the pieces, even if they break off put them in a safe place, so long as you have all the bits, don't worry too much if the veneer is a little buckled , it will pull flat with clamping.
they do have threading machiens that put a fine thread on the veneer , much like dental floss. it zig zags and you can lay up intricate patterns and do things like book matching and fine details. If you are working on this sort of intricate veneer be especially careful.
if you have missing bits you can replace with similar wood. depending on the piece a quick and dirty way is to fill the void with a laquer stick, you can heat them and fill the void with it by melting it in , alternatively if it isn't a valuable piece you can sometimes fill the area with appropriately died wood filler, then scratch lines in it to resembel the wood grain and then refill. you might do this a couplle of times to get an interesting effect and you have to get the color just right. There is a bit of an at to some of these repairs and it isn't too hard to find some less valuable piece to practice on , you can even steal veneer from some other antique and move it to the piece you are working on. I think really cold temperatures can also affec the glue. I hear of one guy that claimed he could put a piece outside in really cold weather and farm the veneer from it when it is really cold, he would kind of knock it and break the bond since at the cold temperature it is brittle. dry ice might work as well.