March 25, 1919 



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HARDWOOD RECORD 





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Musical Instruments 



The notion prevails widely that musical instruments contain 

 more foreign than domestic woods. It is quite commonly be- 

 lieved that mahogany, ebony, rosewood, and foreign walnut are 

 the only really important woods belonging in this industry. It 

 will come as a surprise to most people that less than four per cent 

 of the woods purchased by musical instrument manufacturers in 

 this country are of foreign origin and more than 96 per cent 

 grown in our own forests. 



The visible part of a piano, for instance, may be mahogany, 

 and persons unacquainted with the construction of the instrument 

 will natuurally conclude that it is mahogany through and through. 

 It is quite otherwise. All the mahogany in it may not be equiva- 

 lent to five board feet. The visible part may be veneer and in 

 very thin sheets, and all the rest is some other wood. 



The annual consumption of wood in this country by makers 

 of musical instruments totals 261,000,000 feet, board measure; 

 and only slightly more than 9,000,000 feet of this can be classed 

 as foreign. About a dozen foreign woods are on the list, notably 

 mahogany, Circassian walnut. West Indies boxwood, ebony and 

 rosewood. The other foreign woods are represented by smaller 

 quantities. Mahogany exceeds tenfold all other foreign woods 

 combined, as musical instrument material. 



Almost without exception the foreign woods are made into 

 veneers and are used as outside finishing for the instruments, and 

 this explains why it is that foreign woods make such a showing 

 and give an idea of large quantity. They are all expensive and 

 are all handsome; but because of the small quantity finding place 

 in any one instrument, the foreign woods represent quite a small 

 proportion of the total value of all the woods. 



(To be continued.) 



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