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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



February 25, 1918 





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seldom abundant in any locality. They are known re- ^ 

 spectively as mountain mahogany, valley mahogany, 

 long-tailed mahogany (referring to the shape of the flow- 

 ers), and featherwood (referring to the figure of the 

 wood) . 



Other trees of the western part of the country with 

 richly colored wood, akin to huckleberry, are the 

 madronas and the manzanitas. Supplies are pretty 

 abundant in some regions, and occasionally trees of large 

 size are met with. 



One of the most finely figured woods of this country, 

 so far as contrast of colors go, is sumac. It is seldom 

 found with trunks large enough to be w^orked with profit, 

 but very handsome veneers may be cut from trunks from 

 six to ten inches in diameter. 



List of Uses 



A complete list of uses to which these w^oods have 

 been or might be put is impracticable, but the following 

 are some of the actual uses which some of these woods 

 have met, and the list might be enlarged and doubtless 

 will be when fuller utilization, both in veneers and novel- 

 ties, has been worked out: Piano actions, canes, umbrella 

 handles, whip stocks, caster wheels, mallets, steering 

 wheels, knife handles, rulers, scientific instruments, yard 

 sticks, brush backs, parquetry, knobs, small musical in- 

 oi small woodenware, souvenirs, and novelties. 



Veneer Plant Burns 



The plant of the Strong Veneer Company at Gerry, N. Y., was 

 burned on February 17 with loss of $30,000; partly insurerl. The 

 cause of the fire is unknown. The factory was the leading industry 

 of the town and gave employment to fifty men. It was a three- 

 story frame structure and was totally destroyed, together with 

 machinery and stock. The owners will rebuild. 



Challenge to Veneer Furniture 



The makers of furniture with veneered panels have confidence 

 in the standing qualities of their product, but It may not be defi- 

 nitely known just how much it will stand in the way of tropical 

 climate. A recent report by H. E. Everley, special government 

 trade agent in Colombia, South America, challenges the sufficiency 

 of veneered furniture to stand the climate of that country, and 

 advises shippers in this country not to ship such furniture to 

 that region. 



This is a challenge which, it may be taken for granted, will not 

 be let pass without proof. Possibly veneered furniture cannot 

 stand Colombia's climate, but possibly it can; and if it can. there 

 is no reason why manufacturers of such furniture in the United 

 States should abandon efforts to do business in Colombia, on the 

 say so of a trade agent who may be mistaken in what he says. 



There are different kinds and qualities of veneered furniture. 

 The poorer kind may fail in a tropical climate, while the best may 

 stand up under the severest tests. Much will depend on the quality 

 of the glue and the efficiency of the method of putting it on. If 

 the glue holds, there is no apparent reason why veneered work 

 should not give service as good as is given by solid \vood in similar 

 situations. A good many lugubrious warnings regarding furniture 

 have come out of Colombia and northern South America, first 

 and last. At one time shippers w^ere warned against sending 

 wooden articles of any sort, because white ants would eat them up 

 for breakfast the first morning after arrival. Now the w^arning is 

 modified a little and the ban is put on veneered furniture only, 

 leaving the presumption that solid furniture w^ill be all right. 

 Nothing is now said about white ants, but it is the climate that is 

 the bugbear. 



Maybe these prophets of evil know^ what they are talking about 

 and maybe they are guessing. At any rate, the man who has 

 reason to believe that he can sell furniture in that region, either 

 solid wood or veneer, should not be scared out before he has made 

 some independent investigations to see w^hat the situation is. If 

 the people there are w^illing to buy wooden furniture, they should 

 be given a chance to buy it. They are better judges of what will 

 and what w^ill not stand the climate than is the traveler who makes 

 a stay so short that it does not give him an opportunity to become 

 thoroughly acquainted with the situation. 



No practical limit to the thinness of veneer has ever been 

 reached. Some claim to have cut it only one-thousandth of an 

 inch thick. Sheets of that thinness are a mere gauze, and per- 

 haps a coarse-grained w^ood like oak or ash could not be cut so 

 ihin, because such a sheet would fall apart and become mere dust. 

 For practical purposes. Spanish cedar is cut in thinner sheets than 

 any other wood, though doubtless there are others w^hich can be 

 reduced to equal thinness. 



The veneer maker is one of the most successful lA'ood con- 

 servationists, because he wastes so little in the form of sawdust; 

 but this comment does not apply to the saw^ed veneer. 



Nurserymen are large users of veneer as a substitute for paper 

 in w^rapping trees and plants for shipment. Water has little effect 

 on veneer, but it speedily ruins paper. In many instances the 

 use of veneer wrapping dispenses with the need of shipping boxes, 

 for the strong wooden sheets protect the stock against bruises and 

 breakage, and it also hinders evaporation from the wet mass em- 

 ployed as packing material. 



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