HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



Vostei'day we had the pleasure of a visit from 

 Ilcnniimi von Schrenk. whose "Tramp Abroad" 

 Is mi'unl to imiirove the m('lh<ids of ImproKiiation 

 In the I'nitod States. It seems that experts 

 iiflen can li'arn a little sonielhins in Germany: 

 Ibouph. obviously. luml»ei-inir cannot be studied 

 to advantage in this country. Stumpage prices 

 are wonderfully high — for firewood as well as 

 for timber — and second growth has a value which 

 an American would scarcely believe to exist. 

 Just imagine that I have tried to buy thirteen 

 acres of woodland with the trees no higher than 

 a table, and was asked a price of .$2LM) dollars 

 per acre. No need to say that I have not 

 bought, 



1 wonder what the price of second growth 

 white pine would be in the United States near 

 Cadillac, if such second growth were as safe 

 from fire in Michigan as it is in Hesse Darm- 

 stadt. We have seen a few examples of wood 

 products here. For instance, beech flooring im- 

 pregnated with colophony : six pounds of colo- 

 phony being pressed into ten square feet of inch 

 flooring. Flooring of that character is abso- 

 lutely waterproof, and does not warp or twist. 

 A beech floor treated in this way and laid In 

 18S9 was quite the best I have ever walked on. 

 The flooring is joined by grooves here, A very 

 hue groove is cut on both sides of the strips, 

 and the strips are jointed by a band of wooden 

 nails. 



.Another trick new to me in the flooring line 

 was this : Parquet strips some eighteen inches 

 long and four inches wide were laid together 

 into squares about two feet by two feet. Ob- 

 viously, it is easier to join the parquet strips 

 in the factory, and to lay them in squares, than 

 to Join them on the floor of the house itself. A 

 special kind of flooring, also, is being made of 

 beech, laid on asphalt, to be use in factories, 

 large offices, and the like. 



Every day brings some new information, 

 frequently about small details which we have 



not had tiun i- .1, serve or to work out, in the 

 United States. I trust that this winter's slay 

 of the school in Germany will be more in- 

 structive than has ever been the case In the 

 Iiast. With kind regards. 

 Yours sincerely, 



C. A. SCHENCK. 



Delayed in the Mails, 



Un .luly 28, 1905, IIakdwood Rkiohii 

 mailed a letter through the Chicago post- 

 office to the Ingram Lumber Company of 

 VVausau, Wis. Under date of November 

 7, 1910, this letter and envelope -were 

 returned by the Ingram Lumber Company 

 vpith the notation that it had reached their 

 office on November 4, 1910, The envelope 

 bears all the earmarks of its long hiding 

 in the Chicago postoffice, where it was 

 marked mailed from that office at 1:.30 a. 

 m, on November 4, 1910. 



It is said only one business letter in~a 

 million which passes through the postoffices 

 of the United States goes astray, but this 

 one certainlv was the "millionth."- — Editor. 



Ven 



HOW THIN SHOULD VENEER BE? 



l-'or several j-ears the teudeucy umoug 

 veneer manufacturers has been to cut face 

 veneer thinner and thinner. Considerable 

 protest is being made by veneer users, and 

 the question, "How thin should face veneer 

 be?" is now being asked. 



At first glance one is not impressed with 

 this fact from studying the annual reports 

 of the veneer industry as compiled by the 

 United States Forest Service, because the 

 greatest quantity of veneer cut is 3-16 thick, 

 with 1-8 occupying next place in point of 

 quantity, and the 1-4 coming into third place. 

 In other words, on the face of the govern- 

 ment figures the majority of the veneer is 

 cut thick. This is rather misleading on its 

 face, however, because it does not tell us 

 anything about the thickness of face veneer 

 proper. The great bulk of this comparatively 

 thick stock is used as thin lumber in box 

 shooks, package making and various other 

 purposes not regarded as face veneer. 



When we get down into face veneering 

 projH'r it is evident tliat the thickness is -con- 

 centrated around 1-16, 1-20 and 1-28. This 

 applies both in rotary-cut and sawed or 

 sliced. In the earlier days most of the 

 sawed and sliced stock was from 1-16 to 

 1-20 but much of the rotary-cut stock ran ui) 

 in thickness from 1-16 to 1-8. That is, of 

 the stock for face veneering proper. There 

 is still a large quantity of face veneer cut 



Machinery and Materials to Stain Birdseye 

 Maple Veneer 

 The Bureau of Manufacturers has re- 

 ceived an inquiry from an American busi- 

 ness firm, inquiry No. 60, that would like to 

 secure the names of firms that can furnish 

 machinery and materials to stain birdseye 

 maple veneer different colors, such as silver 

 gray, oak and mahogany color. 



eers 



1-8 to use in millwork and other places 

 where the trade calls for plenty of body in 

 the veneer for facing off. 



But among the principal face veneer woods 

 there is a strong tendency to concentrate be- 

 tween 1-16 and 1-20, and it looks like an- 

 other year or two will see the bulk of all 

 face woods cut 1-20, except mahogany and 

 such imported woods which are commonly 

 cut now 1-30. Here also a downward tendency 

 is noted, for mahogany was formerly cut 

 1-20 and 1-28 with 1-28 as the main standard. 

 Now, there is four times as much mahogany 

 cut 1-30 as is cut 1-28 and there is very 

 little of it cut as thick as 1-20. In fact, 

 mahogany has centered around the 1-30 thick- 

 ness and both in rotary and sliced stock tliis 

 may be accepted as the general standard 

 now, which is at least two points down in 

 thickness from what was the practice a few 

 years back. 



Therefore, as stated above, the question 

 now confronts us of how thin or how thick 

 face veneer should be. There is evidently 

 a tendency to thinning down that may go to 

 an extreme, and according to some veneer 

 users has already gone too far, because it 

 makes veneer using difficult and docs not 

 leave enough to glue up and finish properly. 

 On the other hand, it is argued that in the- 

 finest kind of work all that is wanted is a 

 very thin face of veneer not thicker than ti 

 piece of paper after finishing and the body 



work should be constructed independent of 

 the face, properly cross-banded, and balanced 

 up, .so that the veneering is nothing more tlian 

 a face decoration. It has no part to play in 

 the construction work whatever, and because 

 of this fact should be handled as a facing 

 n'aterial only, and to get the most beauty of 

 face out of a given amount of wood it will 

 be cut just as thin as the nature of the work 

 will jierniil. 



There is evidently room for some difference 

 of .jpinion. There is already some dilTcreiiw; 

 in practice. The door and millwork people 

 generally use veneer 1-8 inch thick, also 

 some of this thickness is used in furniture 

 panels, but in the finest furniture work as 

 well as other high-grade cabinet work, there 

 is not nuicli thick stock used. It is fine and 

 Ihin and when finished ofT is not much heavier 

 in body than a good coat of paint or a sheet 

 of paper. 



It is likely that there will be a good deal 

 i.f argument back and forth before we do 

 finally determine which is the best and most 

 liractical thickness for veneer. The one thing 

 we do know right now is that the trade, 

 especially the manufacturers, have been fol- 

 lowing the tendency toward thinner stock, and 

 sometime somewhere along the line there will 

 have to be a halt called and a reckoning as 

 to what is the best thickness to cut. — J. Tay- 

 lor — Wood Craft. 



* * * 



The .M.-Uey, Thompson & Moffett Company, 

 j.rominent Cincinnati hardwood and veneer 

 house, which for sometime past has been 

 operating a local wholesale and export stor- 

 age yard at the foot of East Thirtieth street, 

 Manhattan, has just centered its business on 

 new property recently acquired at Richards 

 ;ind Delavan streets, Brooklyn. It is located 

 in the heart of the Atlantic basin export 

 sliipping district, where the company secured 

 four corner lots admirably situated for the 

 carrying and shipment of stocks for either 

 domestic or export trade. The old yard at 

 Kast Thirtieth street has been closed. Con- 

 currently, the local office of the company has 

 been transferred to 65 Beaver street, with a 

 branch bffice in the Brooklyn yard. The com- 

 pany is stocking up with a complete line of 

 lumber and veneers and will be in better 

 shape than ever to carry on its business of 

 export as well as quick shipments to the local 



trade. 



« « « 



Veneers and veneer finish will be manu- 

 factured by the newly organized Deco- Veneer 

 Company of Indianapolis, Ind. The com- 

 panj' has been incorporated with an author- 

 ized capitalization of .$20,000 by Henry DoII- 

 inan, H. W. Raymond and A. L. Wilson. 



# » » 



.Special machinery that will practically 

 double the capacity of the plant is being 

 installed by the Veneer Package Comi)any, 

 of Indianapolis, Ind., and salesmen will be 

 placed on the road to extend the bu»i'i.'^-: 



