WOOD-USIKG INDUSTRIES OF MAINK. 1.55 



Woodenzvare and Novelties. 



The temis "vvoodenware" and "novelties" include a great 

 many different articles, and in the State of Maine, the manu- 

 facturers of these classes of products make such things as kit- 

 chen woodenvvare, step ladders, paper plugs, cloth boaitls, cut- 

 ting boards, etc. The term novelties used in this connection 

 braces a large class of small wooden articles which can not be 

 classed under toys, handles, or other distinctive heading. The 

 variety of the product is such that no single wood gives all- 

 round satisfaction. For woodenware, which is usually taken to 

 mean kitchen woodenware, a wood must be found which is 

 easily worked and can be easily kept clean ; basswood is proba- 

 bly one of the best for this purpose. The manufacture of step 

 ladders requires a fairly strong lumber that is rather stiff. Ac- 

 cordingly spruce is used to a large extent by ladder makers, 

 and in some cases basswood. In making paper plugs there is 

 no special demand for a wood which will turn easily and pre- 

 sent a smooth finish, but the demand is rather for very cheap 

 material and so paper plugs are made from sugar maple, beech, 

 yellow birch and paper birch of low grade. About 15 per cent 

 of the paper birch shown in the table was manufactured into 

 paper plugs from cores left after veneer had been cut off. 



The manufacture of novelties is usually carried on in the 

 same plants which manufacture small handles, and which turn 

 boxes from paper birch or yellow birch. The average mill of 

 this kind turns a part of its material into boxes, a -part into 

 handles and the rest into articles usually grouped together as 

 novelties. What has been said before in this report upon the 

 adaptability of paper birch and also young yellow birch for 

 lathe work applies here. 



More than one-third of the spruce was manufactured into 

 butter tubs. A somewhat larger quantity was manufactured 

 into mechanical pulp at one point and this pulp was pressed 

 into pie plates at a plant in a neighboring city. The balance of 

 the spruce was used chiefly for ladders. White ash went largely 

 into step ladders. 



Cloth boards were manufactured from white pine, balsam 

 fir, black and white ash, and red maple. Carpenter's bit boxes 

 were made from yellow birch and sugar maple. Asoen was 



