July 25, 1917 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



25 



Standardizing Curved Veneered Work 



The Tendency Has Been for Each Manufacturer to Make His Own 



FEW years ago, before Period styles in furniture 

 came into vogue, with their simplicity of lines 

 and absence of unnecessary ornamentation, the 

 furniture manufacturer was up against the propo- 

 sition of taking care of a lot of curves in his designs. 

 This applied not only to beds, but to case goods as w^ell; 

 there were curved panels and drawer fronts to be manu- 

 factured, and these invariably were the things that gave 

 them pause, as Mr. Shakespeare so well puts it. 



As suggested, the straight lines of the Period designs 

 have to a large extent eliminated the curved panel from 

 the situation for the present, though there is a general 

 assumption that it will ultimately come back. Variations 

 in design are likely to be introduced all the time, and 

 after the changes have been rung on the present ideas, 

 bed-room suites and other furniture involving the con- 

 struction of curved panels will doubtless be designed by 

 those who are in charge of the furniture styles. 



Curved panels are still seen here and there, of course, 

 as the Colonial designs are not altogether out of it, 

 though superseded to a large extent by Period stuff; but 

 the troubles of the superintendent have been lessened by 

 the gradual and substantial reduction of the amount of 

 such work which had to be provided. As a matter of fact, 

 this is a change which has been greatly appreciated by 

 those who have to do with the manufacture of glued-up 

 work in the furniture factories, and they are very thank- 

 ful to the designers for the respite which they have been 

 given. 



The difficulty and trouble involved in handling curved 

 panels are well understood by the trade; in fact, there 

 are many leading manufacturers of panels who do not 

 handle work of this kind under any considerations. They 

 have found that anything "special," and a curved panel 

 job always comes under this head, costs too much to 

 handle, and that it is not worth while to bother with it. 

 A few concerns have specialized in the manufacture of 

 curved stock, but these have been decidedly in the 

 minority. The result has been that most of the users of 

 such work, especially where their requirements as to each 

 size and dimension were small, have manufactured it in 

 their own glue-rooms. 



Changing from designs involving curved panels to 

 those which require only flat built-up work has, therefore, 

 enabled users of glued-up work to buy it in the open 

 market, instead of having to mike their own stock. 

 Whether this will have the effect of changing concerns 

 which have been in the habit of laying all their own 

 veneers to buyers of glued-up work rather than thin stuff 

 remains to be seen. Tlie convenience of getting panels 

 ready to use and avoiding the troubles of the glue-room 

 will probably appeal to many, especially since the elimina- 



tion of curved work to a large extent makes it unneces- 

 sary to maintain this. 



The situation which exists at present suggests possi- 

 bilities in the direction of standardizing curved panel 

 work which have not been considered up to this time, 

 because of the extent of the work handled and the obvious 

 difficulties which would be involved in bringing about 

 so comprehensive a change. But with the limitations of 

 this type of product reduced because of changes in cur- 

 rent designs, this seems to be an opportune time to dis- 

 cuss the subject, and to bring to the attention of designers, 

 as well as superintendents in consuming factories, the ad- 

 vantages which follow the use of standard designs of this 

 kind. 



Manufacturers of case goods, beds, and other products 

 in which curved work is used, who through the substitution 

 of flat w^ork have become temporarily, at least, the bene- 

 ficiaries of the conveniences which this has introduced, 

 w^ill respond to the suggestion that if curved work were 

 standardized, it would be possible to buy it to greater 

 advantage in the open market. Even if the individual 

 manufacturer preferred to continue to make his own 

 glued-up stock, it would simplify his operations, since 

 the manufacture of special forms would be reduced, and 

 the cost of making these would be saved. 



This is a big item, and in the old days when curved 

 work predominated, every factory accumulated an enor- 

 mous quantity of material which had been used for a 

 time in the production of curved panels, and had then 

 been thrown away as absolutely useless when a slight 

 change was made in the design. The cost of material and 

 labor involved in producing special forms for the manu- 

 facture of curved work is greater now than ever before, 

 and therefore the opportunity to make a substantial sav- 

 ing in the manner indicated should be more attractive 

 than ever. 



Attention has been called from time to time to the pos- 

 sibility of automatically standardizing flat work, from the 

 standpoint of the panel manufacturer; that is, making a 

 selection of business which presents a coincidence of 

 dimensions, and therefore permits manufacture without 

 regard to special orders. While this can be worked out 

 with satisfactory results with flat work, it would be im- 

 possible to do this without conscious effort as far as 

 curved work is concerned, because it would be too much 

 to hope that a great number of consumers would follow 

 the same ideas exactly in designing their products, and 

 that these would involve no variations in dimensions. 

 The use of curves in the design would introduce great pos- 

 sibilities for minor variations, and therefore would in- 

 crease the difficulty of attempting to standardize a busi- 



{Continued on page 28) 



