Omar Venturelli, age 15. of Longview, Wash., for his question:

HOW IS VENEER MADE?

Veneer is a thin sheet of wood of uniform thickness cut by peeling, slicing or sawing logs. It is used primarily for plywood panels made by gluing sheets of veneer together.

Most veneer is cut from the Douglas fir, but many other varieties of wood are also used. There are several ways of cutting veneer, but the most popular is the rotary cut method. In this method, the log is placed in a lathe and then revolved against a knife extending across the length of the log.

The veneer is then unwound in a long ribbon, much like unrolling a bolt of wrapping paper or cloth.

Veneers vary in thickness from three eighths of an inch down to about one one huundredth. Most rotary veneers are cut in thicknesses from one twentieth of an inch 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 cubic feet each year. Now in the early 1980's, the figure is even higher.