Member Q&A: does all old furniture have borer? And should you bother with veneer?

Short and straightforward this week. Two questions, both ones I get asked a lot.Does all old furniture have borer?No. It's absolutely not a default. Furniture that's a couple of hundred years old can be completely fine. I've had hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces through the workshop with no problem at all.When it does turn up, the question is whether you can remove the part it's in. Back panel, drawer, a single component? Take it out, replace it, done. I've done it more times than I can count, especially with back panels. On a lot of oak pieces the back is a cheaper timber like pine, and there's often a gap between the back panel and the drawers, so the borer gets into the back but never reaches the drawers.How to check when you're out looking at a piece: Pull the drawers out and look at the backs for tiny holes or fine dust. Pull out the bottom drawer and check the frame around the base. Get your phone torch on it. Lift the piece safely and look underneath. It's almost always in the back or the bottom. If it's in the sides, it's a bad case. Fresh dust means it's active. If it's screwed together, swapping the affected part is easy. Nailed is trickier. I'll even rescue a piece with borer in the sides if everything else is good, salvage the sound timber and bin the rest.One thing on treatment: from what I understand, borer spray won't soak through varnish or a thick old shellac coat, so spraying a finished surface isn't really treating it. It needs bare or lightly stained timber to get in.Can you fix veneer?Yes, but I tend to stay away from it, and you'll rarely see veneer in the shop. That's not me being a grumpy old man. Finding matching veneer is hard, and I just prefer solid timber. The Art Deco telephone table in this week's restoration video is a good example: solid oak everywhere except the chipped veneer door.The big risk is sanding through it. Veneer is thin layers with the grain running at 90 degrees to the layer beneath, so if you go through the top layer you hit grain running the wrong way and it shows. Undamaged, just tired: no machine. Use a sanding sponge or block, a fine grit (220 or finer), go lightly with the grain, then refinish. Chipped or damaged: wax sticks, or glue in a patch. It'll always show, though. For a proper job you really want to replace the whole panel, or it'll look patchy. This one came up because of the old Singer sewing machine tables. The wooden tops are sometimes solid oak (or rimu), but some are veneer over a substrate. Once moisture gets into the veneer ones, they swell, crack, and it's game over. You either repurpose them or do a full restoration, and the time and cost often aren't worth it.That's this week. Got a question? Drop it in the comments, or email or text me, and I'll get to it next week.

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