John,

There are several of us here who have done entire or partial decks with veneer. There are also as many techniques used successfully. I use white carpenter's glue for designs and yellow carpenter's glue for entire decks. It's best to install the deck first no matter what technique you use. For doing the whole deck I put a thin coat of glue on both surfaces, let it sit just a couple of minutes then put the veneer on the deck. I use a veneer roller to smooth out the veneer then lots of weights, tape, whatever to hold it tight to the deck. I've found I can get distributed, even pressure by putting a thin piece (4mm or so) of plywood over the deck and strapping or weighing it down. Be sure to put waxed paper between anything you use and the veneer as the glue can seep thru some types of veneer and you will end up glueing your weights to the boat. Not a bad problem if you paint them to match the finished boat. Another technique is to roll on a coating of yellow glue on the veneer, allow it to set to the tacky point, place the veneer on the deck, place a towel over the veneer and use a hot iron to bond the glued veneer to the deck. I've not done it this way but others have with great success.

Make sure to post pics when you're done!

George K

thanks for the info George K

I've tried that yellow aliphatic/iron on technique  on other projects but hadn't considered it for the yak.   Think I'll give it a try.   In weaker moments contact cement rolls over my mind --I suppose thats a big no no.    BTW George,  looking through some of the other threads, I saw a pic of one of your finished designs -Beautiful!     Looks like marquetry.   Am I correct to assume the veneers are applied as an overlay and the small step from veneer thickness is "filled"  in when coated with cloth/resin?

 thanks again for the tip

John

John,

You're right, it's an "onlay" which I hand sand to as thin as possible, feathering the edges also, then 4 oz cloth and epoxy. Takes several fill coats rolled on thin and sanded off to fill the low spots. Ends up looking and feeling like an inlay.

Contact cement might work but you'd better have the veneer in exactly the right place. I'd stick with the yellow glue on this one.

And thanks for the compliment on the boat.

George K