East Aurora Advertiser

Certainly Wood: Veneer Suppliers from Wales to the World



I’ve driven by the unpretentious commercial building on Route 78 just past Thorpe’s Family Farm and just before Schang Road in Wales at least a hundred times. And I always wondered what a place called Certainly Wood was doing so far out in the country.

Certainly Wood is located on Route 78 in Wales, between Merlau and Schang roads.
Image by Jeff Niggel

Well, a few weeks ago, I messaged Greg Engle, the sales director there, and asked if I could come out and let our readers have a look behind the big overhead doors. He was more than accommodating; in fact, I took up a good part of his morning touring and talking and gawking at the warehouse chock full of domestic and exotic wood veneers.

Certainly Wood, founded by Jim and Roslyn Dumas in 1983, is certainly about wood, wood veneers to be specific. But not veneers in the commonplace sense like half-inch plywood that has a one-sixteenth-inch veneer of birch or maple glued onto it so it can be used for do-it-yourself projects like shelves or cabinets. Inside Certainly Wood, Greg Engle and the other eight members stock and distribute veneers of 110 species of tree.

“From alder to zebrawood,” Engle said.

They have species you might expect to find in Western New York forests like cherry, maple and walnut, but you’ll also find bubinga from central Africa, jatoba from Central America and ebonies and pepperwoods, each with a unique color and grain pattern, each paper thin and precious. At any one time, there are a few million square feet of veneer awaiting customers.

From that unassuming building in the Town of Wales, the rarest, highest quality veneers are packaged and shipped across the United States, into Canada and Europe and as far away as Asia. Ludwig Drums, made universally famous by Ringo Starr, are celebrating 110 years in business with a limited edition of legacy drum kits, available in mahogany, rosewood and maple finishes, each featuring Certainly Wood veneers. For the last few years, Steinway pianos have been finished with Certainly Wood veneers, and their limited edition Lenny Kravitz-inspired, concert grand pianos come alive in mahogany veneers, hand-selected from the warehouse. Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce, luxury yachts on the seven seas have interior styling made from Certainly Wood’s veneers. The United States Capitol, the Roycroft, penthouse apartments in Manhattan, the Pegula’s Florida home have all been made even more spectacular by the addition of veneers from Certainly Wood. You might have seen East Aurora native Ed McDonnell’s restored, 1950s, cherry red Jaguar that won first Best in Show at the East Aurora Toy Town Car Show last August. The interior had been painstakingly recreated using walnut burl veneer that East Aurora furniture maker Thomas Pafk selected from the company’s flitches and then fashioned into the walnut inlays along the dashboard.

This 1950s Jaguar has a walnut burl veneer dashboard by Roycroft Master Artisan Thomas Pafk. He used the veneer from Certainly Wood.
Image by Tom Pafk

“Almost every piece of furniture I’ve made in the past 32 years has some veneer from Certainly Wood,” Pafk said. “I just love walking through the warehouse and musing in my head about the possibilities. My good friend Greg Engle is a treasure; my career would not be what it is without his help all these years.”

Most veneer workers are not as lucky as Pafk, who lives just a few miles from the warehouse. Designers, craftsmen and homeowners regularly fly into Buffalo from all over, then take a taxi to a place that doesn’t even rate a dot on the map to spend hours—days even—pulling out individual leaves of veneer that are anywhere from one forty-second of an inch thick to a sixteenth, trying to find the exact grain pattern and color they need. When the owner of Emerald Guitars in Ireland heard that Certainly Wood had just located a supply of an exotic and very rare quilted maple veneer, he showed up two days later in Wales (New York, that is), with his checkbook, ready to buy.

The process of creating veneers from trees is fascinating. Individual logs are cut in half, lengthwise, then bound back together and cooked in a water bath to soften the wood. They are then sliced into veneer thicknesses and stored in sequential order so that customers who want to match grains for a large application such as a wall can do so. The stack of veneer resulting from one log is called a flitch; each piece is called a leaf.

“Of the millions of square feet of veneer produced around the world, only seven percent is what’s called cabinet grade,” Engle said. “Of that seven percent, two percent make up the quality we would even consider, and from that we pick about one percent to have in our inventory.”

Certainly Wood sales director Greg Engle with a leaf of zircote veneer from Central America/Mexico.
Photo by Rick Ohler

They’ll walk customers through their inventory online or with video conferences, send photos, even ship samples. And they have an accommodating return policy. Furniture makers, woodworkers, interior designers and high-end customers can be finicky, and Certainly Wood caters to them. That’s how they’ve made it from a small, shoestring company into a thriving enterprise entering its 37th year that’s about to hire its 10th employee.

It all began with Jim and Roslyn Dumas taking a plunge into the mail order veneer business after Jim’s seven years with a company called the Wood Shed came to an end. He considered leaving the veneer industry, but his Wood Shed customers convinced him that he was needed in their world. Even though he and Roslyn had no working capital and three small children, they started Certainly Wood. Operating out of their small fixer-upper ranch house, Jim began to accumulate inventory.

“My garage rafters were full, the floors behind the couch and under the bed were full, my mother’s garage and even my next door neighbor’s basement was full,” Dumas said. “In 1985, we moved into an old basket factory [the iconic Ray Kuchenbeisser basket factory near the corner of Route 78 and 20A, now Johnson’s Nursery] where we had room to slowly expand. In 1998, we designed and built a much larger and very efficient veneer distribution center on Route 78 on land we bought from the late Mike Thorpe. It’s located two miles from the living room where Certainly Wood began and where Roz and I still live.”

Not long ago, Jim and Roz’s son Wes relocated to the area and is a sales associate, working alongside Engle, salesman Dan Carroll and office manager Danielle Trunfio.

Engle just celebrated his 30th year at the job and he still comes to every morning with great enthusiasm.

“For 30 years I’ve been blessed with a job that I enjoy. I never know who will call; it’s always interesting. I’m so lucky I got this chance 30 years ago.”

Engle landed the job through a Help Wanted ad in the East Aurora Advertiser in the winter of 1989. At the time he was the caretaker for the Roycroft Inn as it awaited the renovation that would re-establish it as the area’s signature landmark. He had an appreciation for wood and history, but no veneer skills.

Certainly Wood warehouse.
Photo by Jeff Niggel

“I met Jim and Roz at the Globe, we talked and they offered me the job. I’ve loved it ever since. It’s not the kind of job you can go to school for. It’s hands-on; you learn the wood by handling it and by communicating with the customers.”

There are responsibilities that come with veneer sales, such as helping to ensure the sustainability of global tree harvests for future generations. Engle and his associates have become fluent in The Lacey Act, a federal law that bans the trading of plants or plant products harvested in violation of the law and requires the seller to declare the scientific name, value, quantity and country of harvest origin. The Lacey Act helps discourage tree poaching and logging practices that might harm the future of any species. Certainly Wood’s inventory arrives having been cooked, so invasive species can’t hitch a ride, but they have to certify that all the pallets that bring shipments in are free of any insects or diseases.  

Certainly Wood sales director Greg Engle holds a white oak end veneer inside the warehouse for the facility.
Photo by Rick Ohler

Underlying the growth and success of the company is the philosophy of stewardship. As Engle said, stewardship means respecting the integrity of the trees that become veneer. He likes to know where his veneers are headed, and that they will be treated with respect. If, for instance, a customer selected a glorious 18-inch wide leaf of veneer and then says that he will be slicing it up into little pieces thereby diminishing the overall grandeur of the leaf, Greg will move him (gently) to narrower pieces of veneer, knowing that such a grand leaf deserves to be displayed in its entirety. If a customer suggests that a finished project will be painted, he will steer him toward some cheaper, less spectacular materials, rather than have his fine veneer subjected to the obliteration of paint.

For more information about Certainly Wood, visit www.certainlywood.com, or call 716-655-0206. It is located at 13000 Route 78 and is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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