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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



February 25, 1917 



wood, this smoothing is all that will be required; but if 

 it is basswood or other soft wood, it should be well 

 sponged with warm water immediately after leaving the 

 sticker. 



The reason for this is that in soft woods what have 

 been called knife marks are really knife bruises. The 

 wood has been pressed in, and if the raised parts are 

 leveled off the knife marks still show. If the wood is well 

 sponged immediately after leaving the sticker, these 

 bruises will respond to the action of the water much more 

 readily than they would were they allowed to stand and 

 become set. The time required for sponging will be 

 more than counterbalanced by the time saved in smooth- 

 ing up, as much less wood need be removed in order to 

 get results, and when this part of the work is once made 

 smooth it will remain smooth. 



Having prepared the core stock, the question of 

 whether the crossbanding and the face veneer should 

 both be laid at the same time presents itself for considera- 

 tion. There are a variety of reasons why crossbanding 

 and face veneer should not be laid at the same time, but 

 we will mention only the most important ones. During 

 the process of cutting, the surface of the veneer is not left 

 perfectly smooth. Much of the stock used for crossband- 

 ing is liable to be covered with creases where the wood 

 broke away during the process of slicing, and is usually 

 too thin to be dressed before laying. If laid with these 

 creases they will fill with glue, and if the face veneer is 

 laid at the same time and the stock allowed to dry thor- 

 oughly before cleaning up, the glue in these creases will 

 shrink and draw the veneer down with it, and the thin 

 face veneer will scrape through before a perfectly smooth 

 and level surface is obtained. 



To insure a perfect job, crossbanding should always 

 be laid some time before the face veneer, and stripped 

 on trucks to allow it to dry thoroughly. This gives it a 

 chance to do all its shrinking, and if run through the 

 Sander, using the coarse-papered drum only, before put- 

 ting on the face veneer, these indentations and ridges, 

 which are such a prominent feature of some sideboard, 

 dresser and table tops, will be avoided. 



Our high-grade veneers are being cut so thin they will 

 not stand the amount of scraping and sanding necessary 

 to remedy the defects of crossbanding and core stock, 

 and it should not be expected that they would. High- 

 grade lumber is getting scarce; high-grade veneer is 

 expensive, and there is no reason why the core stock or 

 crossbanding should be left in such a crude condition that 

 1 /32-inch or more must be removed before a per- 

 fectly smooth surface can be obtained. In the inter- 

 ests of economy high-grade veneers are being cut thinner 

 all the time, and it behooves the user of veneer to so 

 adjust his factory and gather around him men of such 

 resource that these modern conditions can be met. 



Overlapping of crossbanding is a frequent source of 

 trouble, especially where it and the face veneer are laid 

 at the same time. To prevent this, the writer (in a cer- 



tain plant) once saw a man laying whitewood crossband- 

 ing with a !/2-inch space between the edges. When asked 

 for an explanation, he said the v^rood was dry and the 

 glue would swell it until the edges came together. 



We passed on through the factory. In the stock room 

 we found a dozen bedroom suites with the face veneer, 

 which was laid on the bias, actually broken across the 

 grain. The manager asked me if I could not point out 

 to him the cause. The factory was new and up-to-date, 

 but he wondered if there was not something about it, 

 some dampness about the walls, or something else, that 

 was causing the trouble. I drew out a drawer and 

 examined the top edge. The edge of the crossbanding 

 showed it to be made from '/g-inch stock. Good! I 

 dre^v out another drawer and it was the same, and I 

 could find nothing there to explain the trouble. 



I then removed the drawer and began to examine the 

 bottom edge. The manager asked if I were a Sherlock 

 Holmes. I assured him I was not, and that the clews 

 which I was following were much more simple and easy 

 to understand than those of Conan Doyle's wonderful 

 stories. At the bottom edge of the drawer front I found 

 that narrow crossbanding had been used and the edges 

 did not quite meet. I had not discovered this from the 

 top edge because the cabinetmaker had inserted pieces 

 to fill the space. The manager wanted to know what 

 this had to do with the checking. I explained to him that 

 these open spaces merely furnished a clew to the con- 

 ditions under which the work was done and the manner 

 of doing it. 



I then took him back to the veneer room, with the man 

 and his crossbanding J/2 -inch apart and his expectations 

 that it would swell to fill the space. In the case of these 

 drawer fronts the crossbanding was not so dry as thought 

 to be, consequently did not swell to meet. But whether 

 the crossbanding was wet when laid or swelled through 

 the absorption of moisture from the glue, the effect would 

 have been the same. It was not the swelling or the fact 

 that it did not swell that caused the trouble; it was the 

 reaction. Crossbanding J/g-inch thick was powerful 

 enough during the process of drying and shrinking to 

 break the thin outer veneer clear across the grain. 



What is the preventive? Have the crossbanding dry, 

 lay it first, and get it in the press as soon after it touches 

 the glue as possible, to prevent swelling. Veneer can- 

 not expand when once the pressure is applied. If there is 

 no expansion there will be no overlapping, no contrac- 

 tion and no checking of the face veneer from these 

 causes. M. A. B. 



Sometimes a cleaning is better for a belt than lacing, and at 

 that time a little benzine has more value than a lace string. 



It is very easy to understand how the furniture factory that 

 buys its panels ready-made may simply order stock when in need 

 of it, but it is hard to understand why a furniture factory making 

 its own panels should neglect to keep on hand a goodly stock of 

 veneer of various kinds, so as to be ready for prompt action when 

 orders come in. 



