HARDWOOD RECORD 



UTILIZATION OF HARDWOODS. 



For many years the solid hardwoods were 

 used in making doors, but gradually they 

 were replaced by the cheaper and more easily 

 handled softwoods, such as pine. This 

 transformation was slow but sure until, with 

 the exception of those eases in which hard- 

 wood doors were necessary because of some 

 special characteristic, the pine door had al- 

 most entirely supplanted its more expensive 

 rival. Later, however, an imperative demand 

 arose for hardwood doors. This was due to 

 the fact that the one thing needed to dignify 

 the appearance of an otherwise ar- 

 chitecturally perfect house was a 

 set of doors which harmonized with 

 the decorations. Such harmony could 

 not be obtained with an ordinary 

 pine door, and so the manufacturer 

 was confronted with a serious prob- 

 lem. He knew, as does every lum- 

 berman, that a solid piece of hard- 

 wood is heavy and unwieldy and 

 that doors made from such pieces 

 have the unpardonable property of 

 warping, twisting, and opening at 

 the joints. In other words, they 

 were a source of unending trouble 

 and could not be relied upon to act 

 twice in the same manner. 



As is usually the ease, however, 

 this problem had a solution, and the 

 manufacturer found it when he de- 

 veloped the idea of veneered doors. 

 By making the core, or center of the 

 door, of pine or some such light 

 wood, and by veneering the hard- 

 woods on to this, the beauty and 

 other advantages of hardwood doors 

 were retained, while most of the 

 disagreeable features pertaining to 

 them were done away with. It is 

 true that at the present time the 

 greater number of doors turned out 

 annually are of softwood, but the 

 marked advance of hardwoods in 

 popularity during the last few years 

 indicates that it is only a matter of 

 a short time until all of the better 

 class houses, oflSces and other build 

 ings will be fitted out with hard 

 wood doors almost exclusively. To 

 the hardwood lumberman this is nat- 

 urally a source of satisfaction. 



In the manufacture of doors, thorou 

 drying is of the utmost importance, 

 outer doors especially the tendency to warp 

 and shrink is very great indeed, and unless 

 the core as well as veneer is entirely freed 

 from moisture at the very start, this tendency 

 cannot be overcome. Thus upon receiving a 

 consignment of lumber the tirst step is to get 

 it into the dry-kiln as soon as possible, un- 

 less it has not been previously air-dried, in 

 which case the process is thoroughly com- 

 pleted in the yard of the factory before it is 

 taken to the kiln. It remains in the kiln as 



ARTICLE XIU. 



Hardwood Doors. 



long as possible, and when taken out to allow 

 room for another lot goes directly to the fac- 

 tory for immediate use. 



The work done by the cut-off and ripping 

 saws during the preliminary steps in the 

 transformation of the rough boards into the 

 correct sizes for doors is, of course, very sim- 

 ple as compared with some of the more in- 

 tricate work which follows, but even here the 

 utmost care is exercised. All of the latest 

 machinery is used, so that a few men can 

 do an enormous amount of work in a compar- 



With 



V MAGNIFICEM I'AIK UF HAND-CARVEU DOORS 



atively short time. 



As stated before, the core of the door is 

 almost invariably made of pine, though some- 

 times other woods are used, chestnut being 

 especially applicable because of its lightness 

 and non-warping properties. This core is 

 made of narrow strips of wood with pieces 

 of hardwood at the edges. These pieces are 

 all fitted with tongue and groove or are per- 

 haps dovetailed, and are glued together and 

 subjected to powerful hydnmiir ]iii"<«nre. thus 

 insuring a perfect joint, (if .nnrKi- tliis ap- 

 plies chiefly to - the stiles an.l raiN for the 

 thin panels, wOiich are usually made of one 



solid piece of softwood which is covered 

 on both sides with a beautiful piece of hard- 

 wood veneer. 



The veneers themselves are made from all 

 varieties of hardwoods, the principal ones 

 being birch, plain and quarter-sawed red and 

 white oak, brown ash, and mahogany. With 

 the best doors these veneers are a quarter of 

 an inch thick, which is far above the average 

 for furniture veneers. This is particularly 

 necessary in outside doors, of which several are 

 shown here. The best veneers of birch and 

 some other woods are rotary cut in 

 this operation, bringing out the 

 beautiful figure and grain of the 

 wood most effectively. 



Mill work plays a rather impor- 

 tant part in the making of doors, 

 for with the outer ones especially 

 moulding around the panels and 

 glass are quite common. The egg- 

 and-dart moulding is perhaps seen 

 more often than any other one kind, 

 although there are several other va- 

 rieties on the market. The dentil- 

 stool, which to the uninitiated is the 

 wooden projection just below the 

 glass in a front door, is also made 

 in various designs. In striking con- 

 trast to this work, which is done by 

 machinery entirely, is the hand-carv- 

 ing with which some doors are dee- 

 orated. As in the ease with so many 

 pieces of furniture, this hand-earviug 

 tends to "tone up" the entire arti- 

 cle and make it a work of art, as 

 may be seen from one of the accom- 

 panying illustrations. 



After the veneer is thoroughly 

 dried on the core, the edges are 

 smoothed and the whole carefully 

 sandpapered so that the entire door 

 is ready to be fitted together. This 

 assembling of the different parts in 

 the case of doors is simplicity itself 

 as compared with the same operation 

 in the manufacture of desks, for in- 

 stance, for in the latter case this 

 work is done by many different la 

 borers, while with doors other than 

 those which employ glass in their 

 construction, the entire operation is 

 frequently accomplished by machinery. 



Thus in the making of an ordinary five or 

 six-panel door the outer stile is laid down in 

 a horizontal position on a special machine 

 which is in reality a press. This stile has 

 holes into which the pegs of the cross-rails fit. 

 One man begins at earh end of the uncom- 

 pleted door and coveriiiL' " • n'i "' the top 

 or bottom rail, as the ca-^ ni:i- Mi glue, 



fits it in its proper plarr ;,!i.l ' iinncrs it 

 down with a wooden sledge. Xext comes a 

 panel whose tongue fits into the groove run- 

 ning up the side of the rail. The next rail 

 is then hammered in place, thus firmly secur- 



