26 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



October 25, 1917 



•- -g| Made in Si. Louis by 



- 1 St.Louis Basket & Box Co. 



WE MANUFACTURE 



a complete line of 

 Built-up Stock in most 

 any size or thickness, 

 including Walnut, Ma- 

 hogany, Quartered 

 and Plain Oak, Ash, 

 Gum, Plain or Figured 

 Birch, Yellow Pine, 

 S y c a m ore, Cotton- 

 wood, etc. 



!'*■'!? \Sll 



AU Three of Us Will Be BeneEted if 



done with ^/g-inch material, which is from six to twelve 

 times as thick as that used now. As a result there was 

 connparatively little danger of cracks and other defects 

 making their appearance. The old artisans never thought 

 of having finished goods in the homes of consumers 

 within ninety days from the time the timber was cut, as 

 is sometimes done at present. The material that the old 

 artisans used was dried thoroughly by natural processes, 

 and more often than not it was kept around the house 

 or shop several years before it was built into furniture. 

 When it came to laying veneer the craftsman didn't put 

 a glued-up top in a press in the morning and have it out 

 and through the machine room into the cabinet room 

 in twenty-four hours, as some try to do today. Admit 

 that the work they turned out was very good when fin- 

 ished, can any one tell how many panels or tops they had 

 to repair before a piece of work was completed? 



The old artisan w^as all right, but his days are gone. 

 His work was individual, mostly done with hand tools, 

 and there was pride in the making. He used animal 

 glue because that was all he had, and he used thick 

 veneers because progress had not showed how to handle 

 thin ones, just as he used hand tools because power 

 driven machinery had not been developed. If an all 

 guiding Providence had seen to it that vegetable glue 

 was discovered before the animal product, the old artisan 

 would have done just as good work. 



The writer of this feels that the editor quoted must 

 have been in some haste when he wrote that extract, be- 

 cause he has a deep knowledge of furniture matters, and 

 he surely knows that veneering is all right today w^hen, 

 properly done, just as in the past. He must know that 

 today's work necessarily has to be better, in order to 

 stand up, than that which was made with veneers many 

 times as thick as those which find a place today. The 

 thickness of the face stock protected it against many of 

 the weaknesses to which it is exposed at present. Work 

 done in the past would be out of the question, judged 

 solely from the standpoint of quality, today. The present 

 day manufacturer is obliged to adjust every detail of his 

 operations to the increased sensitiveness of the thinner 

 material which he is working. When a face veneer 1 ^32 

 of an inch thick (thin would seem more appropriate to 

 say) is put down, and not only makes a splendid ap- 

 pearance, but stays in place for an indefinite period, 

 a much greater achievement has been recorded than 

 when veneers twelve times as thick are used. 



As to the coming furniture having no veneers to peel 

 off, it can only be said that hardly a month passes but 

 that some furniture manufacturer finds his future welfare 

 demands that he turn his attention to laminated goods. 

 In passing it may also be well to remark that "figure" 

 which plays so important a part in furniture of the pres- 

 ent, is somewhat more difficult to obtain in lumber than 

 in veneers. That is another little reason why veneers 

 are bound to be demanded by the industry. Still, yeneers 

 properly glued do not peel. 



As to that invention, vegetable glue, which the editor, 

 in a supercilious air, refers to as sago and common 



You Mention HARDWOOD RECORD 



