24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



make a business of buying walnut logs in small lots and disposing 

 of them to concerns who manufacture them into lumber and veneers. 

 For this purpose the ordinary run of plain walnut is used without 

 any special regard to ligure or curl. The wood used for this purpose 

 is merely in the form of logs and is sold as such, and from them 

 manufactured into lumber and veneers for furniture and similar 

 purposes. However, there is a splendid demand which is never 

 ([uite taken care of for this wood in the more luxurious form, and 

 that is the wood with the beautiful mottle; the so-called tigured and 

 curly walnut which commands excellent prices and is highly thought 

 of for all character of high-class cabinet work. In fact it is difficult 

 to tind any character of wood growth which shows a more beautiful 

 surface when properly finished than this highly figured curly stock. 

 It is in this line of work that the walnut log men take the greatest 

 pride. In fact it is necessary that these men have a wide and 

 varied experience that they may make a success of the accumulation 

 and disposal of curly and figured stock. 



While the plain wood is gathered and sold merely in the form 

 of logs, the curly and figured stock on the other hand is almost 

 always secured from the sources of supply in other forms. The 

 figure and the curl are the result of natural freaks in the growth 

 and formation of the wood. As a general thing instead of being 

 found in the logs, they are found in the stumps or in the ' ' burls, ' ' 

 which to the layman in the ordinary form present an appearance 

 about as attractive as an ultra-mature tree toad. 



The experienced walnut man, however, quickly determines whether 

 or not such a ' ' butt " as he calls it will develop figure or curl, when 

 he has gone so far as cut the tree. He takes great pride in his 

 ability to tell in a general way just what character of figure each 

 stump that he selects will develop in the veneer or lumber. It is not 

 to be inferred from this that the walnut man merely goes through 

 the woods, looks at the walnut tree, and is able to ascertain exactly 

 for what use it is best suited. As a matter of fact there are usually 

 but one or two trees in every hundred cut which develop any figure 

 worth while that will justify their being placed in the class of 

 tiKured walnut. 



The work of selection of tigured butts is exceedingly tedious, and 

 when the walnut man discovers one which he considers marketable, 

 that is, a butt that shows that it possesses a strong suggestion of 

 ligure or curl, he has it shipped to his assembling yard. Here it is 

 split and the bark and sapwood trimmed off pretty closely to the 

 heartwood. In the figured stock the sapwood is of no commercial 

 value. Various methods are used to preserve the butts after they 

 have been prepared in this way to minimize checking and other 

 deterioration. In this connection one of the oldest of the walnut 

 asemblers of the country, Frank Purcell of Kansas City, Mo., says 

 that after he has split sfid trimmed his butts he buries them in 

 sawdust immediately, which procedure keeps them in a most excellent 

 condition for an indefinite period. 



The veneer manufacturer is a man interested in the purchase of 

 these fancy butts, and as soon as he hears of any special offerings he 

 makes a journey to the assembling yard and makes his purchases., 

 The butts are then shipped to the veneer plant, where they are 

 sliced up into the required veneer which is further matched up in 

 the piano manufacturer 's panel plant for high-grade piano facing. 



As suggested, the proper selection of walnut in the stump is really 

 more of an art than a cold-blooded business proposition. A man has 

 almost to be born to this work and to pass through years of training 

 in order that he may be able to recognize the beauty he is seeking 

 when he finds it. There are not many men in this country who are 

 able to produce in this way, and among the ibiggest handlers of 

 walnut today, Mr. Purcell ranks probably as one of the most expert 

 from whom the big veneer people buy their butts. In this connection 

 are shown two photographs which do rather poor justice to some 

 of Mr. Purcell 's selections. The true beauty of the walnut butt is 

 not developed to the eye of the average mortal until it is opened 

 up in the form of veneer. Hence, the camera is a poor means of 

 conveying to the average individual an idea of what a walnut butt 

 really looks like. However, these illustrations will give an idea as 

 to the manner in which these butts are treated after their arrival 

 at the assembling yards in preparation for their further manufac- 

 ture into high-grade veneers. 



^OTi«i!OTtatroiK!Wi»l!»>»!!>t^^ ' 



The Lumbermen s Round Table 



ADVANTAGES OF SALESMEN 



Houses which have assumed the somewhat heavy expense of send- 

 ing traveling salesmen out on the road to sell lumber sometimes won- 

 der, especially when business is coming in rather easily, whether it 

 is worth while to maintain an organization for sales purposes in the 

 field. But when trade is draggy, and when it takes real salesman- 

 ship to move the stock, the boys on the road are the very backbone 

 of the business. If getting orders is like pulling eye-teeth, it's 

 certjjin that the traveling man, commg into personal contact with 

 the consumer, can come closer to achieving this difficult dental opera- 

 lion than the chap who has to depend on cold type for expression. 

 ' ' T don 't know what we should have done recently without our 

 salesmen," said the head of a large hardwood concern recently. 

 "Our mail business has fallen off to practically nothing, ,but in spite 

 of this the men on the road are still sending in the orders. Eight 

 now they're our best asset." 



THE OPTIMIST AND THE PESSIMIST 

 Everybody has heard the definition of the pessimist as the man 

 who sees only the hole in the doughnut. That simply indicates that 

 the way one looks at things determines the way things are — as far as 

 the individual is concerned. 



A lumberman sat in his office recently, chewing his nails and look- 

 ing moodily at the rather cheerless outlines of his airtight heater. 

 "Nothing doing," he growled. "Never saw business so dull. I 

 don't believe anybody is cutting up lumber any more." 



Just half a dozen blocks from him was another hardwood man, 

 whose smile was not of the made-to-order variety. He looked cheer- 



ful, talked cheerfully, and in fact was cheerful. 



■ ' Oh, everything is all right, ' ' he said. ' ' Business is good with 

 us. Sold seventeen cars last week, which is pretty good for a young 

 house like ours. It's just a case of getting out and hustling for the 

 orders, that's all. ' ' 



Disregard the hole in the business doughnut and consider only the 

 light and appetizing circumference. It's there, all right. 

 STUDYING OUTPUT OF LOGS 

 A sawmill man who iias had more than average experience said 

 recently that one phase of the business which is rather neglected is 

 comparison of the results of manufacturing given lots of logs, not 

 only as to footage, but grade. 



' ' The only way to tell whether a bunch of logs was a good buy, ' ' 

 he pointed out, " is to cut them up, figure the output as to grade and 

 get at the value of the product accordingly. If the sawmill man fails 

 to do that, he is never in a position to tell his buyer whether to go 

 ahead on purchase in a certain territory or whether he is to stay off. ' ' 

 The importance of this proposition is appreciated when it is 

 remembered that the percentage of low-grade is constantly ascending, 

 and that the millman must keep in touch with the changes in this 

 respect, in the timber he is buying in order to know whether he 

 can purchase at current rates and have a margin for profit. 



That is to say, if records for one section for a certain period 

 indicate that the mill is getting twenty per cent of firsts and seconds, 

 sixty per cent of No. 1 and No. 2 common and the remainder lower 

 grades, it is important to know whether those percentages still hold 

 gnofl on logs from the same territory. 



