February 25. 1919 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



23 



Hen Explaifis Some Veneer Terms 



Feb. 15, 1919. 

 Friend Jim, 



Say Jim, that last letter you wrote has lots 

 of questions in it, and you have been in the game long 

 enough to know some of the answers. You ask what 

 I meant by loose cut stock that 1 mentioned in my last 

 letter. I bet some of your helpers could tell you, but 

 here goes for a try at putting an explanation on paper. 



Some face veneer and most cross banding stock now 

 days is rotary cut, and it is in this stuff that we get 

 loose cut or close cut veneers. 1 don't know that I can 

 tell you the process in a way that you will understand, 

 but the log that is going to be cut into veneers has been 

 soaked in warm water to make it some soft. The place 

 where the log is soaked is generally called a soaking 

 tank or pond or vat. Sometimes the log that is going 

 to be cut is made the required length before it is soaked 

 and sometimes this operation comes after the soaking. 

 The piece is put in a big lathe, so to speak, it is fastened 

 about the center of the ends much like a piece of wood 

 is fastened in a hand turning lathe, or a back-knife 

 lathe for making turned work. But of course a rotary 

 veneer cutting machine is not much like a small turning 

 lathe. The mechanism is so constructed that the log 

 is kept turning against a knife that is as long as the log. 

 The machine can be adjusted to cut whatever thickness 

 is wanted. As the material is cut it runs over the knife 

 in a big way sort of like the potato skin runs off that nevir 

 fangled peeling knife Min was using to peel potatoes 

 when we was at your house. 



Of course at the start the log is rough and at first 

 small pieces are cut off here and there, but it soon gets 

 so the log is almost like a perfect cylinder. Then the 

 veneer can be run w^ay back in the mill, and cut to 

 whatever width is wanted, and the defects will permit. 



Nov^r this rotary cutting machine has a pressure bar 

 to keep the knife where it ought to be when the log is 

 turning, and the knife is supposed to be kept sharp. But 

 sometimes the pressure bar gets loose, and sometimes 

 the knife gets dull, and that is where our worst loose 

 cut veneer comes in. That is, a loose cut veneer is made 

 on a machine that is not doing its work right. When 

 it is doing its work right it makes close cut veneer. 



Loose cut veneer can be told by bending the stock 

 back and forth in the hands. It bends very easy and 

 shows a lot of cracks. Of course, in all rotary cut 

 material we have what we call inside and outside, and 

 even close cut veneer will show some cracks on the inside, 

 but it is the difference between good m^de rotary cut 



veneers and those not made good, that gives us the 

 names of loose cut and close cut. Loose cut is almost 

 like a lot of splinters being held together by a piece of 

 tissue paper, while close cut is practically solid with only 

 a few cracks on the inside. 1 hope that 1 have helped 

 you some, Jim, but if you go after the next veneer drum- 

 mer that you see you may get a better understanding. 



You ask how we are making out with vegetable glue. 

 Jim, there's nothing like it in making panels. We have 

 been using it since the first week in Jan. and 1 got so 

 1 don't think no more about it. Of course when the 

 stuff we first glued up began to go through everybody 

 was looking for trouble, and may be some of us w^as 

 sorry we didn't find any. You know 1 don't exactly 

 mean that, but the way we talked and acted about it 

 would make any one think so. When Ed. Ford got 

 the first bunch of tops in the cabinet room he sure gave 

 them the going over, and when he couldn't find any loose 

 edges or blisters he swore that me and John Malo went 

 over them first so there wouldn't be any come back on 

 us. Well he was right. We did look them over, but 

 we didn't have to hold any out, and this shop is getting 

 so it don't know what glue trouble is. The best part of 

 it is that we make the glue the same way day in and day 

 out, and don't have to wonder whether we are going 

 to get in too much or too little water. 1 am running the 

 panel department with two men less than when 1 first 

 put vegetable glue in, and the gang that is left don't 

 work any harder, and more than keep up with the work. 

 One of the big things that helps is the fact that we don't 

 have to heat any cauls now, and also we don't use half 

 as many cauls in a press because we don't have to put a 

 caul between every panel. 



Another thing, Jim, we used to get an average spread 

 of 29 feet a pound with the animal glue we used. For 

 Jan. and Feb. using vegetable glue, we got an average 

 spread of 4 1 feet to the pound. Some difference. So 

 far it has proved to be everything the makers claimed 

 for it, and 1 hope 1 never have to go back to using 

 animal glue. 



You ask what 1 think is the best kind of a press. You 

 say you and another veneer man had an argument and 

 you want to know what I think. Well, Jim, seems to 

 me it depends on what you want a press for. In regular 

 straight away panel making you can't very well beat 

 the hydraulic press. Of course it is nice to have an old 

 hand press around when you have some odd pieces to 

 glue up, and where there ain't much gluing to be done 

 the hand press is all right. The screw power press made 



