Veneer question

[AlanS]

A friend unloaded a nice amount of burl veneers on me.   Problem is, there are gaps in the veneer..some about 1/16" wide.   I tried to glue a piece to substrate, but the glue filled the gaps and that piece is, to me, unusable.   I generally oil my pieces, so the glue won't allow for penetrating oil, and it shows up as a glue line.    
What is the solution to filling small gaps in veneer, with the intention of Danish Oil finishing?  Also, how do I glue it without having the glue fill those voids ?    If I figure out how to post a pic, I will.

[TomFromStLouis]

One way is to knife the gap into a straight sided shape and fill the void with a matching shape. Easier said than done, but it’s the same as repairing a chipped old veneer piece.

[FS7]

I have once and only once worked with veneer like that. They sold somewhat large pieces at Colonial Hardwoods that had various rips and tears in them. Though it defeats the purpose of veneer to me, I just simply used a long straightedge and a razor and cut the rip out. It's a lot easier to butt up two straight lines even if the grain is slightly off. It's more work, but I imagine it's much easier than trying to cut out an odd shape to fill a gap.

[Gary G™]

Alan,
Can you design the pieces so they’re slightly smaller and cut the veneer just enough to remove the gaps before use?

[CStan]

A friend unloaded a nice amount of burl veneers on me.   Problem is, there are gaps in the veneer..some about 1/16" wide.   I tried to glue a piece to substrate, but the glue filled the gaps and that piece is, to me, unusable.   I generally oil my pieces, so the glue won't allow for penetrating oil, and it shows up as a glue line.    
What is the solution to filling small gaps in veneer, with the intention of Danish Oil finishing?  Also, how do I glue it without having the glue fill those voids ?    If I figure out how to post a pic, I will.

Make veneer patch punches.  You should also know that early burl veneered pieces were patched when originally made.  This was expected.  The patches were not invisible.

https://www.finewoodworking.com/readerpr...ch-punches

https://pegsandtails.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/patches/

[John Fry]

A friend unloaded a nice amount of burl veneers on me.   Problem is, there are gaps in the veneer..some about 1/16" wide.   I tried to glue a piece to substrate, but the glue filled the gaps and that piece is, to me, unusable.   I generally oil my pieces, so the glue won't allow for penetrating oil, and it shows up as a glue line.    
What is the solution to filling small gaps in veneer, with the intention of Danish Oil finishing?  Also, how do I glue it without having the glue fill those voids ?    If I figure out how to post a pic, I will.

The heavily figured veneers, burl, curly, and highly striped grained are very difficult to perfectly match. I would never use material for a nice piece, that needed to be patched before I ever started.
I would harvest the prime, undamaged sections and save them for smaller projects.

[vespid]

You might try using the corner of a chisel to loosen the edges of the burl and move each side slightly in to the void. Paul Church uses this technique.

[vespid]

https://schurchwoodwork.com/veneering-tips/