32 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



and statements mislead a great many. The 

 "mahoganj'" shipped from Europe to the 

 United States during the last fiscal year 

 amounted to almost a million dollars. It 

 ■would be best to give the additional informa- 

 tion that practically all of this timber 

 originally came from Africa, India and 

 Australia. It should be further stated that 

 at present very little true mahogany is ever 

 shipped from the "West Indies and Central 

 America to England and then reshipped to 

 American ports. The true mahogany that 

 comes to the United States is shipped direct 

 from the places where it is cut, and the 

 so-called mahogany coming from England is 

 from British East India and Africa, and 

 therefore not true mahogany. A timber 

 expert who recently visited the large lumber 

 yards in Liverpool and London remarked 

 that he did not find a single log of true 

 mahogany on the English market. This is 

 hardly the case, for it is quite probable that 

 true mahogany is shipped to England from 

 British Honduras, although the amount is 

 quite small compared with that shipped to 

 the United States. 



purchase, after seeing that the art.ele a e 

 aU delivered, take no more respons.b.hty in 

 the matter. However, the fact that the go ds 

 was bought under the market pnce of the 

 Tame grade of true mahogany furmture should 

 Tuse'^suspicion. The dealer - ^berefor 

 n,orally criminal until he satisfies himself of 

 the genuineness of the wood in question. It 

 , • ■ *„.! tl,ot dealers in furniture 

 should be insisted that aeaicrs 

 fr cabinet ware have no right to purchas 



goods under market prices, or at any price 

 for that matter, and sell the same withu 

 Lamining it closely with reference to the 

 kind of wood. The object of these hues is 

 not to depreciate the woods substituted for 

 mahoc-any, for they are in many cases such 

 good woods that they could probably secure 

 a splendid market under their own proper 



names. . . .. 



Another question likely to anse n the 

 minds of readers is whether the mahogany 

 reported as shipped from Europe into the 

 United States was really grown on the con- 

 tinent of Europe. This is not ^kely to b 

 misinterpreted by the majority of mtelbgen 

 readers, vet the chances are that such figures 



Some Phases of Handle Production 



^-^ By H. B. ALEXANDER 



A HANDLE MAN'S IDEAS ON FILING 

 or GANG SAWS 



When I took charge of the plant with 

 which I am now connected, I had never had 

 any experience in saw fitting and I bad 



never filed or set saws in my life. In th.s 

 shop we use gang saws and I 1^^^ al-^^J^ 

 been accustomed to single saws. The man 

 who was doing the filing did not seem to 

 understand it and the saws were doing poor 

 work, were heating badly and some were 

 cracked It occurred to me that the briar 

 tooth with which I had always had my saws 

 fitted would be just the thing here, but it 

 soon proved that such was not the case as 

 the saws heated just as badly as ever. I 

 finally determined to try the filing myself. 

 I had seen a good deal of it done and had a 

 general idea of how to proceed, and so I 

 set to work. I swaged the teeth out good 

 and wide and then used a side file, cutting 

 the teeth square in front and back. This 

 stopped most of the trouble along this line, 

 except that every saw needed gumming 

 badly and they were not of much use until a 

 small emery wheel had been worn out on them. 

 Before beginning to file them the teetli were 

 shaped as shown in Fig. 1; when in the con- 

 dition shown in Fig. 2 they worked better, 

 but when they were put in the shape indi- 

 cated in Fig. 3 they did fine work. 



I discovered that the cracks were caused 

 by using square edged files and since we 

 have used round files we have not been 

 troubled with cracked saws at all. Saws 

 'should be rounded up on the mandrel once 

 in a while, and it is a good plan to mark 

 everv saw, placing them on the mandrel with 

 the mark up, and then it is an easy matter 

 to keep the saws round. 



MODERN METHODS 



The statement is often heard that things 

 are not made as well or of as good material 

 as they were twenty-five years ago. An in- 

 teresting discussion might be developed 

 around this question, as to whether it is 

 really a fact or only the complaint of 

 chronic kickers. With the modern machin- 

 ery in use today, which is the result of years 

 of study of the particular requirements of 

 the line of manufacture for which it is in- 

 tended in each case, with the time-savhig 

 devices and methods in force in most fac- 

 tories of any size, the natural conclusion 

 would be that things must necessarily be of 

 better quality than ever before. 



It may be argued that our American hustle 

 and bustle are to blame for this state of 

 affairs, that we arc devoting more attention 

 to quantity and dividends than to the qual- 

 ity of our product. This is really a serious 



matter, if true, and to a regrettably large 

 extent it must be conceeded that it is true. 

 It seems that there are manufacturers who 

 try to put out as large quantities of their 

 product as possible, and as long as their 

 goods hold together until they get their 

 money they are satisfied, reasoning probably 

 that the sooner things wear out the more 

 orders for their goods they will receive. 



As a good example of a manufactured 

 article which is not made as well as form- 

 erly, furniture may be mentioned. There 

 are millions of dollars invested in this in- 

 dustry in this country, and it is doubtless 

 true that if our chairs and tables were con- 

 structed of the high grade lumber and in 

 the careful and skillful manner of the furni- 

 ture of thirty or forty years ago some few 

 of the concerns in this business would have 

 to find some other means of livelihood. The 

 greatest objection in the furniture business, 

 as in many other industries, is the large 

 quantity of so-called cheap goods turned out. 

 This furniture, made of poor lumber, quickly 

 and roughly put together, is not cheap by 

 any means. It never looks well, and it is 

 soon broken and useless, and has to be re- 

 placed, too often by articles of the same 

 sort, but in the prevailing style of the day. 

 This same line of argument can be applied 

 to the lumber business. Fifty years ago 

 live timber was cut down and sawed into 

 boards. These boards were piled out in the 

 air where they were allowed to season for 

 a year or more, which of course is the very 

 best way of seasoning lumber and produces 

 stock which is thoroughly dry and in ex- 

 cellent condition for any purpose for which 

 it may be used. Today, quite different meth- 

 ods are in vogue. A year before he expects 

 to cut down his trees a lumberman goes 

 through the woods, girdling all that will be 

 cut, so that there is little if any sap in the 

 wood when the trees are felled. When he 

 comes to cut the timber into lumber it is 

 hurried through a steam vat and then into- 

 a hot box, destroying all the life and vi- 

 brancy there was in the wood. The only 

 advantage in this modern method of pro- 

 ceedure is speed. The manufacturer gets his 

 returns on his outlay more quickly — there 

 is certainly no advantage from the user's 

 viewpoint, as lumber thus treated will not 

 stand up against ordinary usage for even 

 a reasonable length of time. 



The high speed band saw cuts ten times as 

 much lumber as the old circular, but it is not 

 as effective on certain hardwoods, like hard 

 maple, as it spoils so much lumber. Mem- 

 bers of the iron and steel trades say that 

 edge tools of all kinds are less durable 

 than formerly, and although there are so 

 many different styles and varieties, the fact 

 that they will not stand wear is a point that 

 makes boasting of progress rather mean- 

 ingless. 



This is just a little plea for quality. With 

 the facilities of the day in all lines of man- 

 ufacture, it is deplorable that our manu- 

 facturers will turn out shoddy goods. There- 



