portions of the knife assembly the cranks 4 5 are rotated by respective motors 4 b 5 b the motors are preferably electric but may be pneumatic or hydraulic in other embodiments the vertically strait movement up and down of table 2 is driven by hydraulic cylinders 6 7 the hydraulic cylinders may be screw gear pawl pneumatic or electric mechanisms in other embodiments raising the table 2 pushes the workpiece 3 against the knife edge a of the knife assembly 1 while the cranks 4 5 rotate to move the knife whereby the knife edge cuts a number of small portions in the veneer with each stroke to slice off the workpiece for a complete sheet of veneer for example top and bottom limit switches 8 9 limit upward and downward movement of the table as shown in fig2 the table 2 has a feed screw c to push the workpiece 3 across the table for making successive slices the feed screw c pushes the workpiece while holding it with a vacuum holding plate b having a suction cup connected to a vacuum line as shown in fig3 the operation by varying speeds and positions lengths and or phases of the cranks 4 5 makes it possible to set the movement patterns of the knife at least and probably more importantly the independent motors 4 b 5 b respectively for the cranks 4 5 permit initial phases of the movements to be set and maintained by subsequent coordinate rotation or varied by varying the speeds of rotation of the respective cranks for example crank 4 can be pulling the knife assembly 1 up while crank 5 is pushing it down on each of these strokes by setting the cranks 180 degrees out of phase and.