Material knowledge

Wood and sustainability

Veneer is one of the most economical ways to work with wood. Still, every piece raises questions: where does the wood come from, what happens to the offcuts, and where do tropical woods such as wenge stand? This page answers them for Reihax as precisely as is possible today, including where the answer is: not recorded yet.

Diagram: on the left a 20 millimetre solid board in section, on the right a 0.6 millimetre layer of veneer on a substrate; for one square metre of surface 20 litres against 0.6 litres of wood — The same surface in solid wood and in veneer: the veneer needs about thirty times less wood. For the four sides of a pen holder it is about 24 cubic centimetres.

Why veneer needs so little wood

Veneer is the most economical way to make a wooden surface. A sheet of veneer 0.6 millimetres thick covers a whole square metre with 0.6 litres of wood; a solid board 20 millimetres thick needs 20 litres for the same area. That is about thirty times as much. On top of that, sliced veneer is separated from the log with a knife, not a saw, and hardly any chips are produced (what is veneer?).

For a Reihax piece that means, in concrete terms: the four sides of a pen holder about ten centimetres across need about 24 cubic centimetres of wood, as much as a cube just under three centimetres along each edge. A single section of log yields hundreds of sheets. Rare or slow-growing woods in particular are stretched a very long way like this.

Where the Reihax veneer comes from

Reihax buys veneer from a veneer dealer. The exception is the mahogany: it comes from a job lot from a workshop that closed down and was sold as mahogany without naming the botanical species. Material that would otherwise have been left lying is used this way.

Whether the individual sheets are FSC or PEFC certified is something Reihax has not recorded so far. It says so here, because an honest gap is worth more than a fine-sounding claim. If you buy veneer yourself and care about documented origin, ask the dealer for the certificate; job lots usually have none, but they are saved from being thrown away.

The woods: temperate and tropical

Reihax works with seven species. Oak, ash, walnut, maple and cherry are species that grow in Europe and North America and are used in forestry there. Two woods are tropical: wenge from Central Africa, and mahogany, whose exact species is unknown for the Reihax job lot.

Dark and light veneer side by side at a joint of Flow No. 2 — Dark and light veneer at a joint of Flow No. 2. At Reihax the darkest tone comes from wenge, a tropical wood.

Wenge: the IUCN lists wenge as endangered on its Red List, mainly because of logging and loss of habitat. That assessment, however, dates from 1998 and has not been renewed since; a more recent model assessment by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 2024 considers the species not threatened. Wenge is not listed under CITES, so its trade is not restricted. Reihax uses wenge as veneer, its most economical form, and buys it through the veneer trade.

Mahogany: genuine mahogany of the genus Swietenia is listed in Appendix II of CITES; its trade requires a permit. But other species are also sold under the trade name mahogany, such as khaya, whose African populations have also been in Appendix II since February 2023, or sapele and sipo. Which species the Reihax mahogany is can no longer be established, because the job lot was sold without a botanical name.

Mahogany on a FOCUS box with a horizontal striped figure — Mahogany from the job lot of a workshop that closed down, on a FOCUS box: material that is used rather than thrown away.

Offcuts

Intarsia works with many small pieces, and so an offcut is often exactly the piece that is needed. At Reihax, veneer offcuts are kept, sorted by species and size, and used for small pattern pieces and letters. Smaller pieces serve as test pieces for cuts and for the finish before a real piece is treated. How to store offcuts sensibly is described in storing veneer.

Substrate and finish

Under the veneer lies a substrate of wood-based board: raw particleboard, MDF, plywood or multi-ply. Particleboard and MDF are made of wood chips and wood fibres, a large share of which come from the leftovers of wood processing. They bond with the veneer through PVA wood glue (substrates).

As its finish, every Reihax piece has hard-wax oil in a satin sheen, in two thin coats. It forms no thick film, can be renewed in one spot or over a whole face, and needs no further treatment in normal use (hard-wax oil).

Durability as part of the sum

The most sustainable object is one that is used for a long time. A pen holder that stands on a desk for twenty years uses less than three that are replaced one after another. That is why precision and repairability count here too: closed joints that do not come apart, and a surface that can be renewed. In the Reihax workshop a whole face of a finished piece has already been sanded back and re-oiled (repairing a finish).

Dusting dry is all the care it needs. And that the colours of the woods change over the years is not wear but patina (UV light and ageing).

What is still open

Whether the sheets from the veneer trade are certified is not recorded yet.
The botanical species of the Reihax mahogany is unknown.
For wenge, the IUCN has no assessment more recent than the one from 1998.

This page will be updated as soon as there is something reliable to say on any of these points.

Frequently asked questions

Is veneer sustainable?

Veneer needs very little wood: for one square metre of surface, about 0.6 litres of wood are enough at a thickness of 0.6 millimetres, while 20 millimetres of solid wood take 20 litres. Sliced veneer is also made almost without chips. But how sustainable a piece is overall also depends on where the wood comes from, on the substrate, on the finish and on how long it is used.

Can wenge still be used?

Yes. Wenge is not listed under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, so its trade is not restricted. The IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, lists the species as endangered on its Red List; that assessment, however, dates from 1998 and has not been renewed since. If you use wenge, it is best bought from a veneer dealer who can document its origin.

Is the Reihax veneer certified?

Not consistently so far. Reihax buys veneer from a veneer dealer and has not yet recorded whether the individual sheets are FSC or PEFC certified. The mahogany comes from a job lot from a workshop that closed down. The page says so openly, because an honest gap is worth more than a fine-sounding claim.

What happens to the veneer offcuts?

They are kept, sorted by species and size, and used for small pattern pieces and letters. Smaller pieces serve as test pieces for cuts and finish. In intarsia, which works with many small pieces, an offcut is often exactly the right piece.