February m. 11' n 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



remarkable instances where this property is ot practical use. Scores 

 of attempts have been made to substitute metal or stone ties for wood. 

 The Patent Office is filled with such patents; but the fact that the 

 wooden tie still holds its place is the best answer. If metal and stone 

 ties do not break, they yield so little that engines and trains passing 

 over the track at high speed are liable to pound themselves to pieces. 



The value of elasticity in wood is often seen to good advantage in 

 small articles. The picker stick, which is a device in looms for throw- 

 ing shuttles, requires the best wood obtainable, which is hickory; for 

 it must deliver strokes exactly the same in time and force, during a 

 long period, and it is the recoil of the stick that throws the shuttle. 



Whip handles, fishing rods, and canes are usually of elastic woods, 

 but strength is of equal importance. 



The board rule which lumbermen use in measuring lumlier is a good 

 example of the part which elasticity can play in daily labor. This rule 

 may be bent in such sharp curves that the operator may measure the 

 width of boards without wearing himself out by stooping to lay the 

 rule flat. The rule springs straight instantly when the pressure is 

 released. It is generally made of hickory sapwood. 



Practice Superior to Theory 

 Tests by machines are of great value in determiuiug the fitness of 

 woods for specific purposes; but such tests are not infallible. It is 

 not always easy to say which quality is most valuable in a particular 

 article, elasticity, strength, or toughness. They are frequently so 

 closely associated that one of them cannot be duly appreciated if it 

 is separated from the others. In such cases actual tests may be a 

 better guide than the data worked out by machines. The archer 's bow 

 is a good example of this. It is commonly supposed that the most 

 elastic woods will make the best bows; but when machines have pointed 

 out the most elastic woods, it is found from experience that these are 

 not the best bows made. Osage orange or bois d'arc (bow wood) of 

 Oklahoma enjoyed a high reputation as material for Indian bows. The 



savages went far to get it, and they were good judges of bows. Yet 

 it is not very elastic. There are fifty woods in the United States 

 superior to it in stiffness, if laboratory tests may be accepted. Long- 

 leaf pine is 62 per cent above it in elasticity; sugar maple and sweet 

 birch are more than 50 per cent superior; and even white oak is more 

 elastic. Yet these never had anything like the reputation of Osage 

 orange for bows. The Indian's experience ran counter to the en- 

 gineer 's test, and in this case the Indian was the court of last resort. 



Take another puzzling example where practice knocks out theory. 

 Western yew is reputed to be the best bow wood obtainable. Archers 

 pay high prices for a yew bow — as much as $150 in some instances. 

 But the laboratory shows that yew is a very common wood in elas- 

 ticity — about like red gmn and basswood. Yew 's popularity for bows 

 is not due to a passing fad and the whim of fashionable archery clubs. 

 In 1806 when Lewis and Clark were at the mouth of the Columbia 

 river they found the Indians using yew bows, although the explorers, 

 judging by appearances, mistook the wood for western red cedar. 



These instances, and others that might be cited, should stand as a 

 warning against too hasty conclusions as to what properties really 

 lead to the use of a wood. In the case of the bow, elasticity is required, 

 but that is not the only, possibly not the chief, consideration. Sioux 

 Indians made bows of butternut, Comanches of mesquite. Apaches of 

 Cottonwood, Virginia Indians of ash, witch-hazel, and locust, and all 

 Indians made bows of hickory when they could get it. The red 

 hunter 's only test was practice and by that he was able to pick out the 

 best woods for his purpose, though in so doing he passed over some 

 woods which the modern laboratory says should have been chosen. 

 Practice, trials, and experience should stiU have a very important place 

 in ascertaining the best uses of woods. Engineers and their labora- 

 tories can do a great deal in that direction, but the safest course is to 

 supplement the engineer's figures by experiments when seeking new 

 woods for old uses or new uses for the woods which are already well 

 known. 



\< w;iia*iig>ai<j;iaiih;t;i^ma!tigtb^^ 



Siding from Bill Stuff 



Often there are greater possibilities in the siding from bill stuff 

 than the average sawmill man realizes. Too often the sawmill man 

 is inclined to figure that the thing to do with the siding of all bill 

 stuff is to make it into one inch and two inch boards and consider 

 it that much clear gain whenever he is able to sell it, because if he 

 has figured properly on his bill stuff order he has calculated that the 

 returns from this wUl pay for the logs, the sawing and a profit besides. 

 Therefore whatever he may get for the siding and trimming is pure 

 velvet. 



Properly, the siding or trimming from bill stuff should be pure 

 velvet. As a general proposition bill stuff should be figured from 

 the raw material cost of what logs are required to make it, and 

 should pay a profit on this basis without having to depend upon 

 the siding or trimming secured by sawing the bills. That, how- 

 ever, is all beside the question of what to do with the siding from 

 bill stuff to realize the most profit. 



In this connection an incident is recalled in a sawmill where 

 oak bin stuff was being cut. The general instructions were to 

 make two-inch boards six inches and up wride wherever prac- 

 ticable, and whera this could not be done to cut inch boards. It 

 so happened that much of this siding from bill stuff was clear 

 material, and it being known that the two-inch plank was sold as 

 common stock, the idea was suggested of running certain of the 

 trimmings into clear dimension. One dimension was 2x4 in vary- 

 ing lengths. It took a little persuasion to get the mill owner's 

 permission, and this clear dimension stock accumulated a bit 

 slowly, but when a stock of it was secured and it came to market- 

 ing it, the millman was surprised at the returns, for they were 

 more than double what he had expected. 



This matter of siding from bill stuff is of particular interest 



these days, because many mills are now busy on car material and 

 r.iilway bills of various kinds, which means lots of siding, some 

 of which will not fit into the two-inch plank trade very well. In 

 the shorter lengths of ear stock, for example, the trimmings are 

 rather short to be salable as two-inch planks. Often, however, 

 they are the best part of the log, having a greater percentage of 

 clear stock in them than the car material itself, and if the proper 

 use can be found for them they ought to bring a better price than 

 the bill stuff. 



What seems to be the best proposition is for the sawmill man to 

 make a study of the possibilities of marketing clear dimensions 

 of various kinds and sizes, not only in oak but in beech and all 

 kinds of timber that is being cut into bill stuff. From a wide 

 knowledge of market possibilities of various items in dimension 

 stock, the millman should be able to select something that wUl 

 fit in with the lengths and sizes being cut, and be able to get out 

 of it much more than is usually obtained. It is bj- a systematic 

 study of just such features as this in connection with sawmiUing 

 that the millman of the future must pave the road to success and 

 obtain the full measure of profit. The siding from bill stuff is of 

 too good a material to be passed by indifferently and sold for 

 whatever it will bring. It is a material with possibilities for 

 profit, and in this day of striving for greater efficiency there is 

 no better place anywhere along the line in the woodworking indus- 

 try to put in some good licks for higher efficiency than in con- 

 nection with siding from bill stuff. 







The chair factories of the country eaU for practically twice as 

 much oak lumber as is used in the making of agricultural imple- 

 ments. 



