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•^J Veneer Manufacture r as a Lumberman xj? 



One- of the reasons wliy papers like Hardwood Record are popular 

 in the veneer trade is because manufacturers of thin stock have 

 realized that the division between their industry ajid the lumber 

 business generally is more or less arbitrary and more or less shifting. 

 They know that to be the best possible veneer manufacturers, they 

 must know something about the lumber trade. 



Not only does this appear in connection with the building up of 

 material and the production of panels and other products of the glue- 

 room, where it is almost essential that the manufacturer have an 

 eye on the quotations on various classes of lumber suitable for core- 

 stock, which in itself is a proposition not to be dismissed lightly, but 

 the manufacture of veneers proper likewise involves, or should 

 involve, rather accurate study of the lumber market. 



An instance of the desirability of this kind of knowledge is occa- 

 sionally found in a negative way; that is, veneer mills are found to 

 be piling up on their yards material which is the by-product, or offal, 

 or whatever- you may care to term it, of the veneer saw and slicer, 

 and which ought to be thoroughly good, salable lumber. But it isn't. 

 The reason is found in the fact that lumber requirements are dis- 

 regarded, and only the veneer situation is held in mind. 



Suppose sawed quartered oak veneers are being cut. The tendency 

 of the sawyer, unless otherwise instructed, is to take off as many 

 veneers as he can get out of the particular flitch which he is sawing. 

 The result of this practice is that the tliiekness of the back-board 

 which is taken off the dogs when the capacity of the flitch is ex- 

 hausted, as far as veneers are concerned, varies constantly. This one 

 may be three-eighths of an inch thick, the next half an inch, while the 

 next may, because of some defect that develops, retain a thickness 

 five-eighths of an inch. The sawyer has done his duty, because he 

 has produced as much sawed veneer as he could. 



What happens then? Why, the veneer man looks around for a 

 buj'er for his back-boards. He finds some difficulty in selling them, 

 as a rule, for though he may advise prospective customers that they 

 are close to half an inch in thickness, as a rule, a purchaser who takes 

 a carload of that material and then discovers that all sorts of 

 dimensions are to be found in the lot usually decides not to take a 

 chance on the material next time. 



Assuming that the boards are sorted properly as to dimensions, 

 the difficulty comes in accumulating a carload of each size. The 

 necessity of carrying the lumber on the yard for the months required 

 to get together 15,000 feet of one thickness means that much of 

 the profit out of the siile that is finally made is lost before it is 

 consummated. • 



As a matter of fact, few veneer men give much attention to their 

 lumber accumulations anyway as far as selling is concerned. It 

 piles up so slowly that its importance is seldom sufiiciently realized. 

 That is how it happens that yards are found to be filled with stacks 

 of aged lumber which would have been moved long before, but con- 

 sisting of such odds and ends of stock that there is little oppor- 

 tunity to dispose of it. 



Practice, as well as study of the market requirements, shows that 

 the manufacturer of thin stock is wisest who insists that every back- 

 board taken off his saw and slicer shall be five eighths inch thick. 

 There are several reasons for doing this. To make it three-quarters 

 inch is not so good a plan, because another sheet of veneer could 

 very readily be secured, in most cases, from the flitch. The point is 

 to find the happy medium between making it too thin for use in the 

 lumber market, and not so thick that much value, from a veneer 

 standpoint, is allowed to remain. 



Lumber that is five-eighths of an inch thick combines these quali- 

 ties. Only one or two more veneers could be cut, at the most, and in 

 many cases this is the right place to stop, looking at it purely as a 

 veneer manufacturing operation. But when the utility of the board 

 is considered as a lumber proposition the advantages of the plan are 

 numerous. Not only is five-eighths lumber more readily salable, since 

 most buyers want lumber that will dress to half an inch, but it is 

 also worth more. Half-inch stock is not so easy to sell, and is worth 



less- so even counting in the money the manufacturer got for the 

 veneer which was cut off the flitch, the difference is in favor of the 

 board that was permitted to remain five-eighths inch thick. 



The point to bear in mind principally, though, is to have them 

 all of the same thickness, and not to leave this niatter, which is 

 such a vital point in disposing of the back-boards, to chance. When 

 a standard, easily sold thickness, like five-eighths inch, is produced 

 rio-ht along, the veneer man gets the "salvage" out of his flitches 

 quickly and with little effort, thus being enabled to put back as 

 much of his capital as possible into additional material for veneers, 

 instead of tying up a lot of money in lumber that nobody wants. 



When random thicknesses are produced, the veneer man usually 

 had to sell the material simply as back-boards, and at a lower figure 

 than lumber would bring; while the veneer manufacturer who is 

 careful enough to take advant_age of the preponderance of the 

 demand in favor of five-eighths inch can sell his stock for lumber 

 and at regular quartered oak prices, without any apologies as to the 

 origin of the material. It will stand on its own bottom and talk for 

 itself. 



Eeference was made above to the need of studying the lumber 

 market in order to be in a position to handle the corestock problem 

 to the best advantage. This has been a feature of special importance 

 during the past year, on account of the numerous shifts in the lumber 

 market. With prices going up and down and demand for various 

 woods varying, the panel man who knew how to buy not only the 

 lumber that was best suited for use in cores, but also that which 

 could be had at the most favorable price, had an opportunity to make 

 some money entirely apart from the usual manufacturing profit. 



Simply buying the same material month after month and year after 

 year, without considering differences in price or any other market 

 features, is to overlook a bet of considerable importance, and while 

 no panel man has the time to devote to the study of the lumber 

 situation that one engaged in that business exclusively can give, he 

 ought to take time enough to get in touch with essential features 

 like that. 



The manufacture of veneers and panels is a specialty, and is get- 

 ting more so all the time; but, after all, it is only a department of 

 the lumber business, and members of the trade ought to regard 

 themselves as lumbermen to the extent of keeping advised of what 

 is going on in that broad field, instead of shutting themselves up in 

 the seclusion of their own corner of the trade. G. D. C, Jk. 



Common Oak Cellar Frames 



As an incident illustrating the growing use of hardwood in 

 planing mill work, it was noticed recently that a planing mill man 

 was making quite a lot of oak cellar frames. He had used two-inch 

 stock, and in running it had put some fancy beading on the edge 

 so that it looked like a special job. 



Inquiry, however, established the fact that it was not special 

 work, but that the millman had found that he could buy common 

 oak cheaper than some of the high-grade poplar, pine and cypress 

 he had been using. He immediately seized upon the idea of making 

 these cellar frames of oak. The builders like them better, and 

 as they are ultimately covered with paint, sound knots and simi- 

 lar defects do not amount to anything. Oak, of course, is a stronger 

 wood, and seems to make a more durable as well as a better frame. 



Of course, the demand of one planing mill using oak for this 

 purpose is not much of an item in the trade, but if oak manufac- 

 turers could prevail upon all the planing mill men within their terri- 

 tory to adopt this wood in making such frames, the aggregate 

 increase in oak consumption would be considerable. This is but a 

 little incident showing how hardwood is winning its way into new 

 fields right along, but nevertheless an incident indicating that its 

 progress would be much more rapid if it were persistently and con- 

 sistently pushed. In this instance it was its own booster. How 

 much more might be accomplished if the makers of oak lumber 

 would do more boosting in the same line. 



