September 25, 1919 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



25 



War Utilization of Walnut 



Editor's Note 



The following article was prepared by W. D. Brush of the United States Forest Service, Washington, D. C, 

 and deals with the lumbering and manufacturing of black walnut for government purposes during the war. 



In peace times walnut logs are cut into lumber of dif- 

 ferent thicknesses and grades, dimension stock, and 

 veneer. The lumber goes into interior finish, sewing 

 machines and music cabinets, pianos, furniture, etc. ; the 

 dimension stock is made into certain standardized parts of 

 furniture and cabinets, such as legs and corner posts; and 

 the veneer is generally placed on the larger surfaces where 

 it is most conspicuous in furniture, pianos, etc. 



During the war all this was changed. The cutting of 

 walnut veneer from wood suitable for war uses was pro- 

 hibited by the War Department and two products only 

 could be sawed from the log — airplane propeller lumber 

 one inch thick and gunstock flitch two and one-half inches 

 thick. The mills were instructed not only what to saw 

 but how it should be sawn so that the least possible waste 

 should result in the manufacture of these two war products. 



Propeller lumber is high grade stock; it is 8 inches and 

 over wide and 8 feet and over long, a certain proportion 

 of greater widths and lengths is required, and very few 

 defects are allowed. Since this stock is rather difficult 

 to obtain on account of the generally small size and defec- 

 tiveness of walnut logs, a very high price of about $300 

 per thousand board feet was paid for it by the Bureau of 



Aircraft Production in order to stimulate production. 

 Since the gunstock flitch yielded only about $120 per 

 thousand board feet when sawed into gunstock blanks, 

 there was a tendency on the part of many manufacturers 

 to try to cut a high percentage of propeller lumber from 

 the logs. This resulted in a large amount of waste in 

 the form of lumber below the propeller grade and a small 

 output of gunstock material. The greater output of pro- 

 peller lumber was produced by turning the log on the 

 carriage after it had been sawn down to a defect, and 

 sawing at right angles to the former cut where fairly clear 

 lumber could be secured. (Figure I.) Any gunstock 

 material produced by this method of sawing would be very 

 defective, narrow and edged — that is, with the edges 

 trimmed off — and capable of producing only small 

 amounts of gunstock blanks. This practice was indulged 

 in particularly by small country mills, often on choice lots 

 of timber, and the result was a very large percentage of 

 waste. Contractors for propeller stock often encouraged 

 small mills in this practice. Manufacturers were there- 

 fore required to saw their logs through and through with 

 all cuts parallel. This yielded wide propeller lumber 

 from the larger logs and gunstock material in the form of 



■^ Pi'^cP 



f ^ ^>^"' 



p- prope/Zer ooarcZs 



6- commoo ooar-c/s , ur ^ 



a- a// cu/s p<2ra//a/ s- s/a6 6- sauyec/o^ /ba^s/c/es 



FIG. l-TWO METHODS OF SAWING WALNUT LOGS FOR PROPELLER STOCK AND GUNSTOCK FLITCH, 18" SMOOTH LOG 



