HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



^he Veneer Industry. 



Probably no branch of the woodworking 

 industry is as little known or considered by 

 the average layman or even hardwood lum- 

 berman as the veneer business. Still this is 

 a great and growing industry, employing 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars of capital 

 and turning out a product in value running 

 into millions of dollars, and whose consump- 

 tion extends into almost every department 

 of the manufacturing business where wood 

 is employed. It is not hard to understand 

 this condition, because very few except those 

 directly interested know to what extent veneer 

 products are used. The industry is a mod- 

 ern one and the growth during the last few 

 years has been enormous. 



This fact is due to perfectly natural 

 causes; the principal ones being the grow- 

 ing scarcity of good timber, the new uses 

 which are constantly being discovered where 

 veneers can be advantageously used, and the 

 paramount matter of economy. It is easy 

 to understand that as lumber values grow 

 higher the demand for equally satisfactory 

 and cheaper veneered lumber products will 

 increase. 



Veneers, or more strictly speaking thin 

 layers of lumber with which to cover and 

 conceal coarser woods, thus presenting a fine 

 exterior surface, are prepared in three ways — 

 sawed, sliced and rotary cut. Sawed veneers, 

 by the use of thin segment saws, are sawn 

 from previously prepared flitches of logs and 

 are usually produced wdth an average thick- 

 ness of one-twentieth of an inch, although 

 quite frequently they are sawed much thin- 

 ner. Sliced veneers are produced from flitches 

 by the aid of a machine carrying a heavy 

 sliding knife, which by each downward stroke 

 slices a small piece of lumber off the face 

 of the flitch, which is rapidly advanced until 

 the flitch is completely cut up. Flitches cut 

 into veneers in this way are often reduced to 

 less than one one-hundred and fiftieth of an 

 inch in thickness, but like sawed veneers are 

 usually cut twenty to thirty to the inch. 

 The process by which the larger quantity of 

 logs are reduced to veneers is by rotary cut- 

 ting. It is alleged that nine-tenths of 

 veneers produced are made in this way. The 

 economical advantages of this method of 

 cutting are obvious, as the veneer leaves the 

 log in a continued sheet without waste of 

 any kind. 



It is a well-established fact that in the 

 majority of cases it is more profitable to 

 cut veneers than it is to saw lumber, inas- 

 much as there is no waste in slabs or dust. 

 Even crooked logs, ordinarily having little 

 value as a resultant lumber product, make 

 good veneers. These veneers when dried by 

 quick and modern methods can, if necessary, 

 be shipped the same day they are cut. This 

 process enables the manufacturer to turn his 

 capital much oftener than can the manufac- 

 turer of sawed lumber, because he does not 

 have to have it tied up for months while the 



product is seasoning. This makes returns on 

 the investment much quicker for the veneer 

 manufacturer, and on the whole the market 

 is a much steadier and more satisfactory one. 



Notwithstanding the large amount of cap- 

 ital and the immense resultant value of the 

 veneer product of the past year, it is said 

 that the demand for veneers and thin lum- 

 ber is now in excess of the supply, as the 

 number of users has increased in a greater 

 proportion than has the manufacture. New- 

 uses for veneer and made-up stock of which 

 veneer is essential are being discovered every 

 day, with the result that the use of the veneer 

 product is expanding most wonderfully. This 

 fact may be illustrated by the experience of 

 a manufacturer of a minor piece of cabinet 

 work which has been produced by an eastern 

 furniture maker for many years. This piece 

 of furniture up to a recent date has required 

 nineteen feet of lumber in its construction; 

 today by the substitution of laminated wood 

 the manufacturer uses only five feet of lum- 

 ber to build it. This fact can be further 

 illustrated in the mahogany industry. To all 

 appearances, in reviewing the fittings of fine 

 oflSce buildings, railway coaches, bar-rooms, 

 and in a review of the products of the fine 

 furniture makers, it would seem that dur- 

 ing the past few years there has been a 

 wonderful increase in the use of mahogany 

 lumber in the United States. Such, however, 

 is not the case. The consumption of mahog- 

 any in the United States for the past six or 

 seven years has remained nearly stationary 

 at about 20,000,000 feet board measure. Dur- 

 ing this same time the mahogany veneer in- 

 dustry has gone forward by leaps and bounds 

 and its increased production has militated 

 against the consumption of the solid wood. 

 Mahogany veneers now go forward in car- 

 load lots to manufacturers, every car con- 

 taining from 125,000 to well toward 200,000 

 feet of veneers. These figures represent an 

 equivalent to the same number of feet board 

 measure of solid mahogany wood. Today 

 the only large consumer of solid wood in 

 mahogany is the Pullman Car Company, and 

 it only employs large quantities in the con- 

 struction of day coaches. The beautifully 

 figured work one sees in the Pullman sleepers 

 is veneer, either of oak, figured mahogany or 

 its more brilliant prototype ' ' vermilion, ' ' 

 which is intermixed at times with English 

 brown oak or fancy American oak veneers. 



The principal industries using veneers are 

 the furniture manufacturers, the basket, 

 boxes and fruit package makers, the veneer 

 stave and barrel makers, interior finish pro- 

 ducers, filing case builders, casket and allied 

 trades. 



The furniture makers use millions of feet 

 of veneers every month and produce from it 

 everything imaginable, from chair seats to 

 the finest examples of the cabinet makers' 

 art. The finest grain effects are easily and 

 cheaply produced when veneer is used and 



the saving over the use of solid wood is enor- 

 mous. Lines of furniture where veneers are 

 used in large quantities are in bed-room suites, 

 desk and oflSce furniture, filing cabinets, 

 chairs, tables and similar lines. To such an 

 extent has the use of veneers obtained in fur- 

 niture production that some furniture makers 

 have installed their own plants for the cut- 

 ting and drying of their veneers. Piano and 

 organ builders use veneers exclusively for 

 cases and sounding boards and their require- 

 ments alone keep many mills busy. Casket 

 makers are already employing veneer very ex- 

 tensively in the making of fine coflSns, and 

 its use is increasing very fast. 



Thin lumber one-half an inch in thickness 

 can be successfully cut on the rotary veneer 

 machines. The majority of all stock used for 

 the making of crates, fruit packages, small 

 boxes, trunk slats, desk drawer Bottoms and 

 and in fact all extensive uses of lumber of 

 one-half inch or less thickness, is nowadays 

 made from veneers. The fruit package indus- 

 try alone, from which are made cabbage 

 crates, onion crates, orange boxes, peach 

 crates, etc., wtII give a faint idea of the 

 enormous field of consumption entailed in the 

 veneer industry. All peach and grape bas- 

 kets, berry boxes and the like are made of 

 veneer, and this branch of the industry alone 

 keeps hundreds of veneer mills in commission 

 many months in the year. It is said that 25,- 

 000,000 baskets are annually used to handle 

 the peach crops of the fruit belt of west 

 Michigan. 



The veneer barrel is growing in favor and 

 many plants are being put in to make them. 

 Many cooperage maiers produce their staves 

 from veneers and claim that this method is 

 an economical one. Not only are staves made 

 from veneer, but the heading as well, and 

 this branch of the veneer industry is still in 

 its infancy. 



The beautiful wavy grain effects seen in 

 the Pullman cars are all produced by the aid 

 of finished veneers. Nearly all the ceilings 

 and interior finish of railway coaches and 

 street cars are made from veneers. Fine and 

 figured veneers find a ready market not only 

 over this country but are exported in large 

 and increasing quantities. 



Another industry which is growing very 

 rapidly is the veneered door and interior fin- 

 ish business. There are numerous concerns 

 which make this form of doors exclusively, 

 and their business is constantly increasing 

 and veneered finish is now almost universal 

 in place of solid wood for fine offices, hotels, 

 banks, churches, public buildings and homes. 

 The handling of glue and cement in the make- 

 up of laminated wood for doors, interior 

 finish and for the many other purposes has 

 become almost a fine art. Today the manu- 

 facturer of these lines of goods will say to 

 the prospective buyer: "If you will buy ve- 

 neered doors of me I will guarantee that they 

 will stand without cracking, shrinking op 

 warping, which I cannot do if you insist upon 

 solid wood." 



Other industries where veneers are exten- 



