Making a Veneer Compass Rose by P. Michael Henderson

The compass rose in the first picture has 16 points, with the major compass points large than the minor. Here, I treat the compass points of N, S, E, W, NE, SE, SW, and NW as major compass points. The minor points are NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, and NNW. It is possible to have three levels of points, with the outermost points
representing N, S, E and W, the next level representing NE, SE, SW and NW, and the innermost points representing the remaining minor points. So my design is not the only one possible.

It is also possible to use more than 16 points for the rose. In this case, it is really no longer a compass rose but it can still be used as a decorative element in a table or other piece of furniture. See below for a rose of 24 points.

For this compass rose, however, we’re going to use 16 points. The size of the rose will be about 5 1/2 inches in diameter.

Preparation

Since the rose will be about 5 1/2 inches in diameter, we’ll need 16 pieces of veneer about 3 inches long, eight light and eight dark. I’m going to use maple and walnut for this demo. The compass rose in the serving tray is made from maple and Wenge but Wenge is very hard and difficult to work with. Rather than make things difficult, I’m going to use walnut which is easier to work.

We’ll cut some walnut and maple veneer about 2 inches wide, then cut it in 3 inch pieces.

I used my veneer saw to cut the pieces to length. Ideally, you should mark the veneer so that you can maintain its orientation. That is, you want the same side up and the same direction pointing out from the rose. While this is good practice, if the wood is pretty consistent and especially on a small rose like this, it doesn’t make a lot of difference if the orientation is not maintained. When completed, we’ll have eight or more pieces each of walnut and maple.

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Using Fine Woodworking Tools