HARDWOOD RECORD 



iq 



and went to work so actively that, through 

 li is efforts, many of the largest contributions 

 of the $30,000 fund given by the lumbermen 

 of tl«> United States tn the flood sufferers 

 were si cured. 



John Noble Penrod has been a close student 

 all his life of that nobles! studj of mankind, 

 called man. He is a close observer of events 

 and a great reader on instructive subjects. 

 His extensive travels and wide experience 

 have made him a man whom it is not only 



a pleasure but an advantage I i meet. He is 

 an expert on walnut and his appellation of 

 "the walnut king'' has not been be- 



stowed because of his extensive and success- 

 ful operations, but because of bis thorough 

 knowledge of its character] bi< uses and 

 possibilities, and his fbility 



in its manipulation. 



The Hardwood Record taki gn l1 pleasure 

 in presenting Mr. Penrod's portrait to the do 

 mestic and foreign trade. 



Evolution of T^otary Veneer 



Machines 



By L. G. 



The veneer business beiongs to a large 

 family of industries, and it owes much of its 

 del lopment to its blood relations. At first 

 a piece of veneer was understood to be a 

 very thin sheet of wood overlaid upon a 

 heavy backing. Usually the backing w:m 

 some kind of cheap timber and the veneer 

 was of a more rare and expensive quality, 

 the object of the overlay being to save the 

 cost of a solid piece of high-priced wood. 

 Hence, to this day, the word veneer in many 

 minds implies imitation and a vulgar attempt 

 to misrepresent. 



As these thin sheets of wood began to be 

 used for baskets and cheese boxes and were 

 made from the commoner sorts of wood, it 

 lust its original significance, but continued to 

 be known as veneer. With the growing de 

 mand fur it in many new fields it increased 

 in thickness, and may now be had in any 

 gauge to % inch. Still it is styled veneer, 

 but there is no longer a very clear distinction 

 between it and any other thin lumber, such 

 as resawed stock, box shooks, staves, heading 



I shingles. It may mean the material out 



of which a potato crate is made, or it may 

 mean the highly-polished surface of a grand 

 piano. And if it has so wide an application, 

 what shall we say of the many different ways 

 of producing it? We have sawed veneer and 

 cut veneer, sliced veneer and rotary cut 

 veneer. There is no difference in principle 

 between a heading or shingle saw and a 

 veneer sawing machine so called. Nor is 

 there much in principle to distinguish a 

 stave cutter or a shingle chopper from a 

 veneer slieer. 



In order to know just what we are talking 

 about nowadays, it is necessary to be ex 

 plicit, and, in a general way, it may be said 

 that there are two kinds of veneer; that 

 which is taken from the circumference of a 

 log, much as paper is unwrapped from the 

 roll, and that which is taken from the log 

 by slicing through it after the usual man- 

 ner of sawing lumber. Rotary process veneer 

 is always cut with a knife, while the other 

 kinds of veneer may be made with either a 

 knife or a saw. The rotary process is the 

 more common, and it is that with which we 

 are at present concerned. 



A rotary veneer-cutting machine was orig- 



Merritt. 



inally made up of two elements — a pair of 

 shafts to hold and revolve a round lug and 

 a knil'i against which the log revolved. The 

 result was veneering of uncertain thickness 

 ami indifferent quality. The mmli rn machine 

 coi, tains one more essential element, and men- 

 tion will be made of that later. 



Uisides the pair of shafts and the knife 

 our primitive machine was provided with a 

 frame of heavy timbers, to which the shaft 

 bearings were bolted. This frame was just 

 what the name indicates — a square frame 

 mortised and tenoned and held together by 

 joint bolts. One of the log shafts had a 

 gear wheel keyed upon it, and this gear was 

 driven by a pinion on the pulley shaft. The 

 other log shaft had no gear wheel and was 

 not driven, but it had a sen 'M acting against 

 its outer end to push it up against the log. 

 The log bad a hole bored in each end, and 

 into these holes the ends of the shafts en- 

 t red, the driving shaft being provided with 

 spurs or dogs which gripped the log and 

 made it revolve. Later on, most machines 

 were geared to drive both etuis of the log, 

 and the shafts carried chucks which were 

 forced into the timber without having it 

 previously bored. A hand wheel furnished 

 means for the application of man power in 

 clunking the log. 



With the advent of iron frames, the same 

 square form was adhered to, but two other 

 designs came into existence, the A frame and 

 the engine lathe, lied. All three types are 

 still in use. 



The knife was bolted to an iron backing 

 rn- carriage in such a way that its back or 

 Straight part was presented tn the rut. The 

 usual plan of feeding the knife was the 

 same as used to-day, viz.. .-. pair of screws 

 driven by a front shaft through bevel years. 

 Simple as this arrangemi nt was, the writer 

 recalls a machine of the same general de- 

 scription, bat in which all trace of feed 

 screws nr any other power feeding device 

 was lacking. The operator pushed the knife 

 up against the log by means of a lever con- 

 nected tn the knife carriage, and tin- thick- 

 ness of the veneer was determined in just 

 the same way that it is in a carpenter's 

 plane — the most primitive of all veneer ma- 

 chines. But to return to the usual feed 

 screw device, connection was made between 



tin- i ronl -ii.i ft and th log aft 

 nt gears or some! im< a I-.. i»-lts. 

 i in,- more thing this early machine 



taiueil. and that was tie late, which 



was supposed to help tin- feed gear in i 

 lating tin- thickness of < r. It was 



not considered of much importance in those 

 days. 



Such was tin- original the veneer 



machine tribe as near as we can di-seni 

 repn se] tative t \ pe. There wet i a fe n ft eaks 

 even then that left the main track ol 

 mon usage, and -nine ,,i i ; , ^,- come i 



nature of a surprise tn any - who supposes 



t hat most of tin- id. as i a I hi modei a machine 

 were born yesterday. 



Bet » • en this early type and our modem 

 highly-developed machine there is a long 

 stretch of road strewn with the relics of 

 partial success and fruitless endeavor. Thesi 

 relics are not carefully arranged like 

 exhibit in a world's fair so that tin casual 

 observer ran see the order of their coming, 

 but must of them are on record in the 

 Patent Office, where anyone can arrange 

 them to suit himself and draw his own 

 conclusions. Now and then we come across 

 a machine that was built 'way back in those 

 early times, ami yet along lines that would 

 place it in the front rank of modern ma- 

 chines. On the other hand, there are machines 

 being built and sold today that would make 



g I subjects tn sit for a photograph of one 



of the patriarchs of the machinery kingdom. 

 Hut. confusing as the field of development 

 may at first sight appear, there is a 

 clear and direct path that leads tn a full 

 view of the whole line id' march. 



Mention was made of the fact that the 

 early machine was provided with a gauge I i 

 regulate the thickness of the veneer. While, 

 as stated before, this little device was thought 

 little of tit first, it has a great interest for 

 us now because it was the fori runner of 

 the modern psessure bar, a must \ital part 

 of th:' mechanism. This gauge originally 

 pressed against the log so as to prevent the 

 knife being drawn into the cut faster than 

 the feed screws urged it forward. Invariably 

 it bore against the log at considerable dis- 

 tance above the knife, ami the friction ot 

 tin- log against it was a cause foi 

 worry by the pioneers in the ait. So 

 urn- thought of tin- scheme of using a roller, 

 and the idea was patented. Thous; mi 

 dollars have be a spi nt in patent litigation 

 over this invention, and, after the fight was 

 all over, we can see that tin- roller idea was 

 wrong from the standpoint of modern prac- 

 tice. But at that time it was a u 

 important matter tn save power than it 

 to turn "nt good ven 



Su far there was nuthie 



tn aet as a pi- the n I 



from checking. It was supposed all alonrj 

 that a knit'.- could not, by the very nature 

 f thinj lo :ni'. thing ; split the 



w I ahead of the cut. A knife is a wedge, 



an. I wedges tire used among other things to 

 split w I. But aftei awhile, no one knows 



