May 10, 1917 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



23 



Sycamore in Door Work 



The Wood Is Securing a Place for Itself on Merit Alone 



YCAMORE HAS LATELY been making a place 

 for itself in the veneer world and especially in 

 door panels, and that perhaps without any 

 primary intentions of the exploitation of syca 

 more specifically as a wood for finish. It seems to have 

 come more as a matter of expediency than anything else. 

 There have been periods when individual architects and 

 individual builders have taken up with the idea of syca- 

 more finish, but there has never been a period when 

 sycamore entered more generally into door work and 

 veneering than today. 



The first thought in this connection was brought to 

 mind by a trip made through one of the big sash and 

 door jobbing houses during the winter. The owner, in 

 showing some of the new door stock, called attention to 

 doors with big sycamore panels. They were two panel 

 and single panel doors, being some of the latest patterns, 

 with western pine solid frames. 



The jobber had not specifically sought for sycamore, 

 but some of the door factories in the northern Mississippi 

 river country had turned to sycamore for making the 

 panels simply because there was sycamore timber avail- 

 able. 



Some time after this, at a gathering of architects and 

 engineers, one of the architects asked v^rhere he could 

 secure sycamore for doors, casing, base and for interior 

 trim. He said he had experienced some difficulty in 

 locating it and that the planing mills were not anxious to 

 work sycamore lumber because they said it was hard to 

 hold. The architect was told where and how he might 

 secure sycamore lumber, and then discussion brought out 

 the idea that a good way to handle sycamore for wide 

 flat work is in the form of veneer. 



Sycamore for thin, wide, flat work can be better 

 handled in the form of veneer than in solid lumber, and 

 it is a peculiar fact that more of the sycamore tree can be 

 utilized by cutting it on a rotary veneer machine than by 

 working it on a sawmill. This is because many of the 

 defects in sycamore are cracks which extend around the 

 log in the direction of the rings of growth. Because of 

 these defects it is difficult to get much wide lumber from 

 sycamore, but in peeling on the veneer machine there is 

 a maximum of wide stock, and a minimum of waste where 

 these defects are encountered. 



Then the sycamore is much given to warping and 

 twisting while seasoning and is a difficult wood to control. 

 Consequently, by cutting it into thin veneer and making 

 it into built-up panels, one not only has a chance to 

 obtain more in the way of wide clear faces, but there is 

 also the better control and safeguarding against warping 

 and twisting. 



Sycamore presents a good face. Much of it is com- 



paratively plain but some is curly and shows beautiful 

 figure. There is some search for curly figure in sycamore 

 and sometimes sycamore is quartersaw^ed to get a par- 

 ticular figure effect. Figure possibilities of sycamore are 

 worthy of more attention than they have been getting. 



The use of sycamore, especially in door veneer, has 

 not been inspired by any particular seeking for face figure. 

 Its introduction seems to have been more a matter of 

 expedience than anything else, but it is proving so satis- 

 factory that it will perhaps receive more thoughtful atten- 

 tion in the near future. The sycamore panel in doors 

 goes very well with a pine frame, with a birch frame, or a 

 frame veneered with sycamore. Then the door as a 

 whole will fit in nicely with birch, maple or beech trim. 

 And it may even be stained to fit in with walnut, ma- 

 hogany or red gum effects. 



Sycamore offers possibilities in the way of drawer 

 bottoms, back panels, built-up shelves and panels for sec- 

 tional bookcases. T. C. J. 



Weighting Down Piles 



Due regard is generally given to the designing of straight, rigid 

 foundations for piling dimension veneer and panels. In the matter 

 of weighting down the piles, however, there is in evidence con- 

 siderable carelessness in the trade. 



Dry panels or dry veneer to be kept in the ideal manner should 

 really be placed between two heavy flat cauls, one making up the 

 bottom or foundation for the pile and the other being put on top. 

 If the pile is high and the top caul is light additional weight should 

 be used. 



Weighting down piles is one of the best means of securing a 

 desirable order of flatness and straight, smooth surfaces. Either 

 panels or carefully dried veneer will warp more or less in time if 

 piled loosely. If the piles are very high the top part furnishes 

 weight for the bottom so that part of the pile remains straight and 

 part of it warps. To insure straightness in all of the piles it should 

 be weighted on top, the amount of weight being governed by the 

 nature of the stock and the height of the pile. It is not satisfac- 

 tory, however, to thro\v just any block of wood on top of a pile, 

 but the weight should be evenly distributed with a flat board or a 

 caul as a covering. If this covering is made heavy it may serve by 

 its own weight in some cases, but in either case in the piling of flat 

 sheets of veneer or flat panels the ideal is best served by providing 

 a flat board or caul as large as the sheets piled and then weight- 

 in" it down sufficiently to take all crooks and warps out of the 

 stock while it is kept stored. 



This applies whether the panels are piled flat or with cross sticks 

 between them to let in the air. There is some tendency to warp 

 and the way to prevent this and to insure flat stock is to work from 

 a straight foundation and then carefully weight down the tops of 

 the piles. 



It did not require the stimulus of the war to bestir the Ameri- 

 can saw manufacturers to improvement of their product because, 

 as has been explained and demonstrated several times, the Ameri- 

 can saws were the best on earth, and recent consular reports tell 

 us that American axes and other tools in the Sonth American coun- 

 tries are makins; a reputation for superiority. 



