I think you could do this with a pull cut plane after you cut to close to the correct thickness with a hand saw. A pull cut plane will prevent the thin sheet from buckling as you try to thickness it, just have to get clever about anchoring it. You could glue a board to the back and then hook it on a table using that board, plane it until you’re satisfied, then cut the board off.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Musical instruments have been made far longer than there have been power tools. Methods of cutting veneer with hand saws are documented from hundreds of years. Roubo on Marquetry covers it well enough for your purposes I think. DM me and I'll send you a .pdf.
Where in the world are you located? I have material in yellow cedar- a tone wood very similar to spruce- in pieces 6" wide x thick veneer to 3/8" thick, very tight vertical grain that I can supply you with at an attractive price.
It looks like you're in Europe so shipping may be prohibitive. I'm in the USA.
Sand paper it down? It'd take ages.
My vote is for a precession saw or laser cnc
1.5 mm with hand tools? The only thing I can think of is a planer to get in the ballpark and then sand. Lots of sanding. Because if you used a tool to do it, it would be a drum sander.
That is a very thin sheet. You won't get sub-mm precision with hand tools, especially the way you'd have to cut.
You could look for high-end veneer, that could already match your thickness.
I don't need to cut it to final thickness right away, since I have to graduate the thickness by hand anyway. Being in the ballpark of 3 or 4mm might be enough.
Edit: also, most veneers I found were plain-sawn, and I specifically need quarter-sawn.
A good handsaw and years of practice will do it. Cut it to more like 2mm or more and plane it down to your final thickness. But it's not easy! Good luck
Yep, this. Chisel, glue up, or carve a recess into a larger piece of scrap plywood to use as a jig to hold the work piece while you plane it. Make the recess the exact depth of thickness you need and you can plane it perfectly to thickness.
I don't know about hand tools, but a skip planer would work. You could use a well tuned hand plane, but that would require a lot or precision and skill.
For very thin veneers, very sharp shaves or block planes with months or years of practice or specialized machinery are probably the way to go to minimize waste.
A table saw with a thin kerf blade is probably the most practical approach, if you don't have months to dedicate to this project. I remember someone doing something similar for a guitar build at a local maker space.