Maria Carducci, age 14, of Ventura, Calif., for her question:

HOW IS VENEER MADE?

Veneer is a thin sheet of wood that is used primarily for plywood panels made by gluing sheets together.

Most veneer is cut from Douglas fir. The most popular method is called rotary cut. The log is placed in a lathe and then revolved against a knife extending across the length of the log. The veneer is unwound in a long ribbon, much like unrolling a roll of paper towels.

Veneers vary in thickness from three eighths of an inch down to one one hundreth of an inch. Most rotary veneers are cut in thicknesses from one twentieth to one seventh of an inch.

In the early 1970s, the United States produced about 1 billion cubic feet of veneer logs a year. Canada produced more than 2.5 billion square feet of veneer yearly.