September 10, 1922 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



35 



The Mission of the Panel Plant 



Occasionally those who have not made a study of the 

 matter and have no clear understanding of the functions 

 and the missions of the panel plant are given to wondering 

 and to questioning as to why -we have commercial panel 

 plants, instead of each furniture factory operating its own 

 plant. 



Perhaps the easiest way to get at a better understanding 

 of this matter and of the real mission of the panel plant is 

 to start by making a study of the sawmill as a distinct unit 

 from the woodworking factory. There are not many 

 among the average furniture factory ow^ners and cabinet 

 factory people of today who would think it any necessary 

 part of their business to go into the woods and operate a 

 sawmill. The better plan and the common practice is to 

 buy lumber either in standard stock or specified dimen- 

 sions from the sawmill. 



There was a time, and to some extent this holds true 

 today in European countries, when the sawmilling was the 

 center of the woodworking institution. First there was 

 the sawmill to reduce logs down to lumber, then there 

 w^ere shops for converting this lumber into furniture and to 

 other uses. By and by, however, we developed furniture 

 manufacturing as a distinct line of business, based on labor- 

 saving machinery and quantity producion. In time the 

 same thing happened to door making. And in the course 

 of this development the savsrmill became a distinct indus- 

 try, the purpose of which is to reduce logs to lumber. The 

 factories and mills buy the lumber and convert it into 

 finished products. 



In the development of the veneer industry there was 

 first an offering of veneer in thin form direct to furniture 

 factories. By and by this took on two divisions. One of 

 face veneer for improving the outer surface appearance 

 of the furniture, and the other plain or common veneer 

 for drawer bottoms, panels and so on. In time there grew 

 up recognition of the fact that to offer the furniture factory 

 material for plywood is not sufficient, that it should be able 

 to secure built up panels of specified dimensions. At 

 first this work was done at the veneer plants, and there 

 w^ill perhaps always be some panel making associated with 

 veneer making, but out of it grew panel making as a dis- 

 tinct special line of business, just as in the earlier days fur- 

 niture making grew up as a distinct separate business from 

 sawmilling. 



The mission of the panel plant is to assemble raw ma- 

 terial in the form of common veneer for crossbanding w^ith 

 figured and other finer veneer for the face, and convert 

 this material into products which will fit into the needs of 

 various customers in the furniture and allied industries. It 

 is a specialized business based partly on the idea of quan- 

 tity production, and originating partly from the fact that 

 neither the average veneer plant nor the average furniture 

 factory has all the raw material and equipment at hand 

 which is essential to the proper and economic production' 

 of ply-wood and panels. The fact that the panel plant can 

 produce in larger quantities means a cheaper product than 

 the average consumer plant can make. 



The fact that the panel plant fills a worth-while mission 

 is proven by the steady growth of the panel industry. No 

 industry thrives for any great length of time unless it is 

 rendering some worth-while service and performing a real 

 mission. The panel industry is performing a real mission, 

 an important mission, as a specialized division of industry 

 in the midw^ay ground between the various producers of 

 raw^ material and the various customers who turn out the 



finished products in the form of furniture and other 



cabinet work. 



Show-Windowing Veneers 



Some of the best advertising that has come to the 

 veneer industry has come incidentally and to some ex- 

 tent unintentionally through a wide use of fancy veneer 

 in fitting up the display windows of fine stores throughout 

 the country. Store windows and store fixtures and their 

 requirements have resulted in development during the past 

 few^ years of a special line of woodw^orking industries, 

 those catering specially to show vifindow^ and store fixture 

 work. The fact that some of their fine work show^s for 

 itself has proven splendid advertising for the veneer in- 

 dustry. 



This, however, is not all the show^-windowing that 

 should be done for plywood and veneers. It is time for 

 us to take consideration of the advertising value of show 

 windows and to profit from this by encouraging a specific 

 display of veneer and plywood in show w^indows. 



Take, for example, a furniture store show window. 

 Certainly if in the vvrindow along with a background of 

 finished furniture, say in mahogany or walnut, there should 

 be shown the product of a nice figured flitch or burl of 

 veneer just as it comes from the veneer plant it would 

 furnish the public an interesting view of the material which 

 is used to make the face of fine furniture. 



The logical follow up of this is in the showing of ply- 

 wood, and in the taking of veneered and built up furniture 

 parts and cutting them so as to show a cross section of the 

 construction. Then have a complete window display, let 

 it contain some bits of rough lumber, some samples of fine 

 veneer, some plain veneer, cross section of methods of 

 construction, and then the finished product. 



Some interesting displays of this kind put forth in var- 

 ious cities of the country through the co-operation of ve- 

 neer men, furniture men and merchants would not only 

 be good publicity within itself, but in time if there goes 

 with it proper bulletins of explanation, it will serve to re- 

 move that common and false impression that veneered 

 work is cheap and inferior and to replace it in the public 

 mind with a realization that built-up construction of this 

 kind furnishes structural superiority as well as a finer finish 

 in face appearance. 



The panelling and background of the show^ windows 

 themselves throughout the country perhaps do more than 

 any one thing to help advertise veneer and impress it on 

 the public mind. Now^ the time is here for the industry to 

 follow this up, show^ a spirit of enterprise, and do some 

 real shovv^-windowing of veneered work, including every- 

 thing from raw material to the finished product. 



