This early Victorian loo table made from burr walnut has bubbling veneer and a large split which goes right through from one side to the other.
Firstly the area is steamed profusely to remove the veneer then the crack is opened and glue poured in and clamped.
A butterfly made from timber of the same gender as the base wood, is inserted across the crack on both sides, the veneer is then re-layed.
On the left a photograph of the table showing the split in the veneer and the table, on the right a photograph of the veneer removed and the butterfly which is inserted to a depth of half the tables thickness. This kind of repair is necessary to stop the table splitting any more and invariably the butterfly as it is called, can then be veneered over, in this particular case with walnut veneer.
A lot of Victorian tables that were veneered over have this problem mostly because the base wood was of an inferior standard to the surface structure veneer therefore any knots or curls would move and open up and cause a split in the surface veneer.
Here you can see the table after the repair and after being veneered and polished. The split In the table was at the bottom right.