30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



lected from various sources during tlieir extensive travels in coun- 

 tries beyond the sea. 



Eeverting again to the carving, as shovrn in the accompanying 



picture, it should be stated (because the picture does not bring out 

 that point) that it all is in one solid piece, except a small peg which 

 fastens the pole to the post in the top center of the carving. 



^ TOOJi i aAgreiiaiTOa^ KTOiw.'H^ 



wi!'a^l^OT^l:»^:>MtreBil:^t^st!!yta^TO»wt^^^ 



About Concealed Cross^-Banding 



"Well, I wonder what they'll ask for next," rumbled the veteran 

 panel man, as he gave a second look at the letter of inquiry that had 

 just arrived in the afternoon mail. "It's beginning to look as if the 

 consumer who hasn't got a special kink of his own he wants car- 

 ried out in the manufacture of built-up stock is the exception, and 

 that buying stuff made in the regulation way, the kind we have always 

 used, has become tabooed. ' ' 



"What's up?" inquired the observer who happened to be in the 

 office at that moment. 



' ' Why, ' ' returned the panel expert, tossing the letter with some 

 feeling into the farthest corner of his battered old roll-top desk, 

 ' ' nothing 's up except the price on the kind of goods that particular 

 customer wants. Instead of taking the stock the way he's been get- 

 ting it for years, he wants a new idea rung in. He doesn't stop 

 to think that it may be much more expensive to do the thing he has 

 in mind, but he takes it for granted that it can be done without 

 diffifulty and that it will not make any difference in the price. But 

 he's certainly mistaken there. I'll put my little cost system to work, 

 find out exactly what the additional labor will amount to, and then 

 add it to the standard quotations on the material he wants. Maybe 

 that will bring him around. ' ' 



"Out with it," commented the other. "Don't talk in a circle, like 

 the campaign orators, getting all red in the face without making a 

 single fact clear. What's the row about? What does the consumer 

 want that he shouldn't get?" 



"Just this," said the manufacturer of built-up stock. "He wants 

 the cross-banding of his veneered work concealed. He thinks that 

 the consumer will have his feelings hurt if he should take a s^iuinr 

 at the edge of his wooden bed — which, by the way, is getting back inte 

 action — and discover evidence of the veneering in the cross-banding. 

 He has been having the corestoek concealed by a band of wood similar 

 to that of which the face is made, and he is carrying the idea one 

 step further and trying to have the cross-banding eliminated, as far as 

 visibility is coneerned. He seems to think that it is a simple nmi- 

 ter, too. ' ' 



"Well, isn't it?" inquired the visitor. "It looks to me as if it 

 would be a good idea to make built-up stock so good, and construct it 

 so cleverly, that nobody could tell without very minute examination 

 indeed that it was not made of solid material. It may seem like 

 painting the lily or perfuming the rose to go to the trouble, but 

 wouldn 't it make the veneered proposition just that much stronger 

 when it came into competition with the other kind?" 



"That isn't the question, my boy," responded the panel man. 

 " If we had to conceal the cross-banding in order to bring the veneered 

 work up alongside of solid, of course we 'd do it. But as a matter of 

 fact it isn't necessary. After the finishing materials are applied, it 

 is next to impossible to differentiate between the materials, and when 

 you have the corestoek taken care of there isn't much use fooling 

 around trying to put the edge of the cross-banding one-sixteenth of 

 an inch out of sight. 



"It's a good idea to make tlie edge look like the face, and in the 

 ease of a bed, where the sides are placed so that the edges are 

 exposed, it's particularly good. But the device of banding the core is 

 suflScient to take care of the main diflHeulty, and it's going a good 

 deal too far, in my opinion, to try to treat the cross-banding in the 

 same way. Of course, if the consumer wants it handled that way, 

 and is willing to pay the additional expense, all right; but here is a 

 typical example of the way things run, for the buyer wants the work 

 done the new way, but he wants to get the advantage of the old 

 price. ' ' 



Furniture men say that the concealed cross-banding- stunt is one 



of the best little tricks in their repertoire just now, as far as laying 

 veneers is concerned. It is particularly popular with the wooden bed 

 people, who are taking hold of the advancing popularity of their line 

 with a vim, and are determined to make wooden beds so good as to 

 design and construction that the brass bed will never have a place 

 hereafter, except up in the attic or down in the basement. One of 

 the things that they think is necessary in accomplishing this result 

 is to complete the effort to conceal the inferior woods used in the 

 building up of the panel by covering all of them with the band of 

 material which now goes around the corestoek only. 



This is somewhat more difficult and naturally more expensive. 

 The way the preposition is usually handled is to rim the core, which 

 is, say, of basswood, with oak, in case an oak face is to be used, and 

 then lay the cross-banding and the face veneers on top of that. The 

 veneering is thus accomplished at one operation. In the plan which 

 has been suggested it would be necessary to lay the cross-banding 

 over the core proper; then, after permitting it to dry out thoroughly, 

 to band the core, with its covering of cross veneers, with the solid 

 rim of oak. After that, in order to be sure of having a smooth finish, 

 it would have to be sanded carefully, the face veneers being laid and 

 dried out before the stock is shipped. 



This means that the gluing up is divided into two operations instead 

 of one, with a consequent expense for labor, not to mention the addi- 

 tional time required for drying. It is a somewhat harder job, and 

 certainly costs a good deal more. The question is, is the game worth 

 the candle? Panel men who are asked to do the work without adding 

 materially to the prices they charge insist that it isn't and point out 

 that the presence of the edge of cross-banding is such a minor point 

 that not one consumer in a thousand would object to it, or even notice 

 it; while the bed manufacturer, on the other hand, makes the poiat 

 that the bed which goes on the market as a mahogany or oak propo- 

 sition ought to show nothing except one of those materials, and that 

 it is an offense to the art of veneering to say that it is not worth 

 while to do the thing in the best possible way. 



There are certain kinds of veneered piano stock in which the edges 

 are more or less exposed, bnt in most cases there has been no objec- 

 tion to the cross-banding being visible. The piano is considered a 

 pretty high-grade proposition, and -it looks, say those who object to 

 the new wrinkle, as if the piano manufacturers would be the first 

 to demand anything that was really necessary in this direction. The 

 fact that they do not, it is suggested, is an argument in favor of 

 letting well enough alone, and being content to treat the exposed 

 edge question by the sufficiently satisfactory plan of banding the 

 core, without worrying about the minute edge of the cross-banding 

 veneer which happens to be exposed. 



The question will probably be debated for some time longer, and 

 if the consumers of glued-up stock come to the conclusion that they 

 really need the material made in the new way, with the cross-banding 

 concealed, it is probable that they will agree on a price for the work. 

 Otherwise they may be content to take it as they have been getting 

 it, and pay the prices which they have been quoted on this character 

 nf material by the panel factories. 



Freight Car Statistics 



The report on available supply of freight ears as com]Hled by 

 the American Railroad Association, November 7, shows little change 

 in the last two weeks. The total surplus has increased in this 

 time by 2,608 cars and the aggregate shortage has increased by 

 3,8.S6 cars. The total shortages reported November 7 came to 

 71,l.'i(i ears. Continued fair weather in the Northwest facilitating 

 rhe movement of grain should do much to relieve the situation. 



