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I'm glad someone asked this! I also love vintage furniture, particularly those pieces with "waterfall" veneer and the like. I found many great shaped pieces, but I also wonder how one gets those "old style" veneers redone?

Not a problem. check here:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2215

They offer a selection of veeners and are super cheap. You could totally replace that with some patience, and a steady hand. If that were mine, and it looks like a beauty by the way, I would strip the old finish off the whole thing, replace the missing veener, and apply a nice finish of linseed oil on it. It will look better than new.

It'll be nearly impossible to make it look like new, as matching the stain/color will prove difficult, but here are a couple ideas:

One way to go about fixing this would be to buy peel and stick veneer edging, or the kind with heat activated backing. Local hardware stores might have these, but here is an example online: Peel And Stick Veneer Edging Strips

These are thin enough to cut with scissors to the shape of your chip. You might need some wood filler to fill in the space between the new and old veneers.

If you go the heat activated route, you can simply use an iron. Heat until you see bubbles coming out of the sides (you know the glue is melted then) and then take away heat, apply even pressure (not with your fingers) and let set.

Another option would be to buy nice wood filler. Get the kind with actual saw dust in it (here's some from MinWax. Use a putty knife and a couple coats to build it up & sand with a block to make nice edges.

With either option, you can sand to reach the same thickness and then stain to match. Even if you don't match the color exactly, it'll be an improvement.

Depending on the age of the piece, a hot putty knife will easily separate the veneer from the substrate (if it is newer then you'll have MUCH harder time - natural animal glues are easy to undo). Then you'll need to replace the whole piece. Veneer is cheap, so you can experiment with stain combinations to get the right color.

Waterfall would be really hard to fix but since this peice has a rectangle shape on the end of the drawer you'd want to remove that whole peice and replace it whole.

if you have a rockler or other high-end woodwork store take the drawer in and try to match the veneer to the existing stain rather than trying to stain to match

Wood filler won't look good stained.

Congrats! this is a rare case of effed up veneer that CAN be fixed. good luck

Check out the menu at the top left of this page. It's full of great tutorials and know-how. Good luck with your project. Hope this helps.

I did my nightstands a few months ago. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There's a guy on You Tube who has a video up (kindly looking man with big bushy beard) that shows you how to do it in a very calm & soothing manner.

I'd have to agree with ttbj's post...

Buy a roll of edge-banding with heat activated backing. You can get this at most decent hardware stores.I'd personally never go with peel-and-stick. Just doesn't seem to work as well.

Make sure to select the proper thickness and wood species. Edge-banding usually comes in sizes slighting wider than typical sheet material thicknesses to allow you to trim and clean-up properly once adhered to your piece.

To adhere, all you need is an iron and a small block. I use a wooden block with softened edges to press the heated edge-banding into place. Make sure to set the iron to a lower heat as you can burn the wood fairly quickly, and all you need to do is heat the glue. Play around with the right temperature setting.

Trim excess with a blade or cabinet scraper.

Break edges with a sanding block.

Apply a few coats of danish oil.

Wow, thanks you guys! That definitely helps. Because I am not usually that handy, I think I will try fitting a piece of veneer to the spot instead of refinishing the whole drawer-front with it. But I never knew I could buy a variety of whole sheets! I will keep all of this helpful advice in mind, thanks!

Home Depot and Lowe's sell the edge banding (I don't know how big yours) is.

That way you won't have to pay S&H on the items online if you don't need a big sheet of it.

Excellent post, Janel, and great comments! Thanks.

I had some sort of specialist sent out by my moving company after they DROPPED my piano, scraped the side badly, and broke the bridge in three pieces. The specialist guy spent several hours cutting pieces of veneer to match the scrapes, then faux painting it to match the finish exactly... I was pretty suspicious of the whole process as I watched it, but now even I can't tell where it was damaged.