34, 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



to tlie fact that the cypress and hardwoods are apt to sink en route 

 to the mill, they are usually chained or spiked to prevent "dead 

 heading." Girdling is also practiced to some extent so that the 

 logs will float in transit to the mill, but rafting is found to be a 

 cheap as well as a safe method. 



Yellow poplar grows to the largest size of the trees, and speci- 

 mens up to five and six feet in diameter are not uncommon. The 

 hickories, oaks, red gum and ash also grow to splendid size here, 

 jtnd the lumber produced is generally said to be entirely satisfac- 



tory both as to quality and as to dimensions of the lumber. 



Most of the hardwood lumber finds a ready local market. Owing 

 to the scarcity of hardwoods in this region, they are in constant 

 demand to supply the trade not only for furniture and general 

 hardwood purposes, but for veneers, slack cooperage, implement and 

 wagon manufacture, etc. Florida sends out enormous quantities of 

 fruits and vegetables as well as being the leading state in turpen- 

 tine and rosin products. For these purposes, a great amount of 

 crates, boxes, barrels, etc., are in constant demand. N. C. B. 



IMITTKD LINKS SIKnv VStAL \V.\Y OF RIl'lMNi; l'I..\.\l< lltOM CUOOKEI) LOG OK UN- 

 EVUX DLVMETEU: SOLID LI.NES SHOW METHOD OF ITTTINO T(i PHllcrUE ILVLl' .VC.MN 

 .\S MUCH LIMBER WITH STKAICHT GRAIN IN EACH ITECE 



Knots, crooks, swelled butts and a few kindred cliaracteristics of 

 timber make up the list of general abominations to the average 

 sawyer in the hardwood mill. The sawyer finds it comparatii'ely 

 easy by the exercise of a little care to handle straight, smooth 

 logs with a minimum of waste and get a pleasing and satisfactory 

 product from them; he has only to study and watch his heart 

 cracks and general contour of the log in placing it on the carriage. 

 He can generally slab straight through and get a reasonable face 

 to start on, and he also gets straight-grained luinhcr that works 

 out to his notion without any great worry. 



Along comes a swelled butt or a crooked log, though, and then 

 his troubles begin. He not only makes some cross-grained stocl;, 

 but it is diflicult to i , ' 



get a face and 

 square up without 

 a lot of waste of 

 material in slabs 

 with heavy ends 

 and big humps in 

 them. 



Let us take the 

 typically crooked 

 log, for example, 

 one with a heavy 

 bow in it. This 

 rolls on to the car- 

 riage and is prac- 

 tically always placed with the bovi' at one of four points, either di- 

 rectly outward toward the saw, straight up, against the blocks, or 

 straight down. More commonly the bow is turned straight out or 

 straight up. It matters not which of these four positions it starts 

 in; the result of working the log down to a square is that on one 

 side there are edging boards that are wide in the middle and taper- 

 ing to a point at each end. Opposite this are boards which are wide 

 at each end running out to a point in the center, and from the other 

 two sides of the log come edging boards that are crooked, which, 

 though they may show a four or six-inch face all the way through, 

 are impossible for edging down to a four-inch or six-inch board 

 because this face crooks like a bow bent for action. Then the 

 resultant lumber in the log is a cross-grained product not much 

 for strength, difficult to dress to a smooth finish in cabinet work, 

 and more inclined to warp and twist than lumber from a straight 

 log. 



One of the best things done with crooked timber is to reduce it 

 to short lengths. This is so well known that it is done without 

 argument to whatever extent seems practical, when people are cut- 

 ting logs in the woods. However, the log cutter in the woods is so 

 accustomed to working logs fen to twenty feet that he seldom 

 thinks of reducing logs to six feet for the sake of reducing crooks. 

 One good way, therefore, to reduce the trouble and loss from 

 crooks in logs is to do more cross-cutting of the logs at the mill 

 before they are sawed into lumber. 



The matter specifically in mind, however, is that of sawing up 

 logs and making the most out of those that have crooks which are 

 rot easj' to eliminate by cross-cutting them into halves or what 



would be termed short logs. Certain ideas along this line have 

 suggested themselves and with these and the general problem in 

 mind, the writer spent part of one forenoon watching a sawyer 

 handle logs in a mahogany mill. 



Here, as with the hardwood nrill, tlu>re were many logs with 

 crooks, and even if they are cut comparatively short, they still 

 may frequently be crooked. These the sawyer handled in the 

 regulation hardwood way, usually with the bow out, and in reducing 

 them down to square-edged dimensions there naturally resulted 

 many short boards, some tapering out toward the center and some 

 toward the ends, while those from the sides were too crooked to 

 get through the edger and produce square-edged lumber. It was 



noticed, too, that 

 after squaring up 

 the logs these 

 crooked ones were 

 cut into thick 

 planks or flitches, 

 and instead of go- 

 ing to the lumber- 

 A-ard they were 

 taken from the dis- 

 charge end of the 

 mill to the dimen- 

 sion stock plant 

 where they were 

 manufactured into 

 short squares and other dimension stock of standard sizes. 



Here is a suggestion for the hardwood man and his crooked logs. 

 They do not make good plank or timbers. Sometimes they can be 

 worked into low-grade plank for railroad crossings or something, of 

 that kind, but it seems that some of this hardwood might be treated 

 like the mahogany; that is, taken to the dimension stock plant and 

 reduced to scpiares and dimensions of short lengths. 



It was the edging boards, though, that have puzzled this par- 

 ticular concern, and in connection with which some ideas are 

 already brewing. One of these crooked side boards was laid off 

 with lead pencil in such a manner as to demonstrate that here, too, 

 it had been figuring over this problem and was trying to dem- 

 onstrate possibilities of cross-cutting before edging. This was a 

 side board from a crooked log that was larger at one end than the 

 other; consequently the face of the board not only curved, but i 

 was broader at the one end. The board was approximately twelve 

 feet long and the first six feet of the broad end had been marked 

 off into two four-inch strips, and the next six feet had been marked 

 to cut in two midway and to produce a four-inch strip in each sec- 

 tion. In other words, from this one crooked board, which in its 

 original state would hardly edge up and make a good four-inch 

 strip twelve feet long, were secured by this means two four-inch 

 strips six fe«t long and two strips three feet long. They were 

 not only better, too, as to square edge, and free from wane, but by 

 cutting the crooked board in the section this way it was practi- 

 cable to follow the grain so that the strips were not so cross- 

 grained, consequently were in much better shape to work. 



This means that the ideal way — and the one that had been brew- 



