IS 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



facturing. This explains why there are so 

 many different woods in the yard of the 

 average basket and veneer factory, for in 

 contracting for timber they cater to the 

 timber man 's interest as much as possible by 

 accepting practically every variety of hard- 

 wood he has in his stumpage holdings that 

 is of sufficient size and can be worked suc- 

 cessfully, thus enabling t man to 

 make a close clean-up and consequently 

 make better prices on timber. It will be 

 noticed that there are two qualifications 

 made, size and the working qualities of the 

 timber. On the point of size it is difficult 

 to give any set standard, because so much 

 depends on circumstances. As a rule, the 

 larger the diameter of the tree the better 

 for the veneer man. The enormous trees 

 of the West Coast are not considered here; 

 in the Mississippi Valley country there is 

 very seldom a tree too large to work on the 

 veneer machine. 



The veneer machines leave a core ranging 

 from six to ten inches in diameter. Kight 

 inches is a small average for the core or cen- 

 ter of each block, which must either be 

 thrown away or worked up in some c 

 manner. One might assume from the neces- 

 sity of leaving this 8-inch center that ordi- 

 narily timber under 16 inches in diameter 

 would not be desirable. This prob 

 would ;i I'ply as a general rule; but there 

 are many exceptions, ami we can - 

 find hickory blocks in basket factory 

 which are not more than s inches iu diam- 

 eter. The explanation of this is that there 

 are other methods, in a. 1. lit ion to rotary 

 machines, for making basket splii 

 etc., out of tin; small hickory blocks and 

 the cores of the large ones, so there i 

 very little waste in the working of hickory, 

 no matter how small the dimensions. 



Probably the most popular and widely 

 used wood in tire basket and veneer indus- 

 try today is red gum. In the northern 

 tion of the Mississippi Valley country 

 maple, beech and elm are the most used, 

 but from St. Louis south, the prominent 

 woods an and elm, with 



gum in the lead. The comparative cheap- 

 ness and ness of gum, and the fad 

 that there is hardly another wood in the 

 hardwood section that will work as ea 

 and smoothly on the veneer machine as red 

 gum are the reasons for its extensive use. 

 orked bo1 b into the heavier 

 s of veneer for back panels in furni- 

 ture, for drawer bottoms, etc., and thin 

 for built-up work. Poplar and all its 

 relatives, including cucumber and other vari- 

 eties of magnolia, make excellent veneers 

 and in all special favorites in the manu- 

 facture of light packages. The extensive 

 use of poplar is handicapped by the scarcity 

 and high prices of stumpage. While cotton 

 wood does not work as well as either gum 

 or poplar, it is quite a prominent factor 

 in the manufacture of baskets and common 

 veneer. In ti acture of egg cases 



and otht r box snooks enormous quantities of 



mw 1 are used annually. Elm owes 



its popularity largely to its flexible nature. 

 At one time it was used extensively in the 

 making of veneers for furniture as well as 

 for baskets and basket rims, but of late 

 years the stumpage in elm has become so 

 scarce that gum is replacing it to such an 

 extent that gum may be considered the 



\\ 1 for the furniture trade. Other species 



of gum including tupelo and black gum can 

 rule be worked more satisfactorily on 

 the veneer machine than in the sawmill. 

 The only question about it is the commer- 

 cial one — the successful marketing of the 

 product. 



In summing up the matter of hardwoods 

 for use on the veneer machine it may be said 

 that practically all depends on whether o) 



it is better to market the timber holdings in 

 question by the veneer process or by con- 

 verting them into lumber in a sawmill, and 

 the commercial end naturally depends much 

 on local conditions. Taking the general 

 situation today, where a man has large quan- 

 tities of either red, black or tupelo gum, the 

 chances are rather in favor of the veneer 

 machine, and, from present indications, as 

 time and the veneer industry progress the 

 favor will increase. Should the stumpage be 

 either Cottonwood or poplar the question be- 

 es more complicated, and the other hard- 



w Is. sin amore, maple, birch, and 



even elm, really come in the stumpage con- 

 sideration here more as incidentals than as 

 prime factors, because of their general pres- 

 ence in greater or less quantities along with 

 i he bardw Is menl ioned. 



JVeto Method of Satoing Q'd Veneers 



Manufacturers and users of quartei ss 

 veneers will be interested in a new device 

 valuable in sawing veneers, patented by 

 Z. T. Robinson of Owensboro, Ky. 



This invention uses a tilting stay-log. a 

 new and improved ! tilting ii 



[uartered log neld thereby successively 

 to di! ! inclinal i 



tirelj in..-, method of locking the Btay-log 

 and adjusting it to any angle desired. It is 



■imply 

 ailing a lever, can instantly tilt and 



lock og in any position desire ,. 



and it i- as rigid as it composed of one solid 

 roll. Wh< ali 

 ighl it is read] to saw Bitches, just as 

 in the old method, i 

 most improved staj log of the old type. 



For use on I hi el urers buy 



logs instead of flitches, quarter them, and 

 they are ready for the veneer saw. It -awed 

 into veneers of one-twentieth of an inch in 

 thickness this machine will turn out about ten 

 - the measurement oJ tie 1 loo. every sheet 

 ing a very full figure, in fad all the fig- 

 ure in the log. 



The object in quarter-sawing logs is to 

 mtiful figured effect. The or- 

 dinary methods of veneer manufacture now 

 in usi produce good figured veneers from 

 only about one-fourth of the log. The rest 

 of the log is of inferior figuring, which nat- 

 urally enhances the price of the \eneers 

 taken from the best part of the wood. 



This new machine will saw practically the 

 entire log into full figured stock, thereby ob- 

 viating the immense loss heretofore incident 

 to sawing veneers. It saws the quartered 

 sections along the lines of the grain which 

 radiate from the center to the circumference, 

 thus using the entire log. 



The usual method after quartering the log 

 is to saw a flitch out of one quarter as near 

 as possible with the grain, and four such 

 flitches are obtained from the four quar- 

 ters of the log. This permits cutting only 



• with the grain, and will not use 

 than about one-eighth of the log in 

 full figured stock. The flitch is secured to 

 the sawmill sta\ log, and successive strips of 

 jawed from it. The full fig- 

 ured material can only be obtained for a 

 small distance in the enter of the flitch 

 and the i, luces second rate stock. 



Mr. Robinson lias sawed about 1,000,000 

 feet of veneers in his two mills now in oper- 

 ation near Owensboro, which show remark- 

 ably beautiful and uniform figuring. In the 

 vicinity of Owensboro, Ky., the best white 

 oak logs thirty inches in size can be bought 

 at a cost not to exceed $30 a thousand feet. 

 As b\ this ne« method a log will make about 

 ten i mi' - i 'ii> log measurement in \ eueers, 



tli -t of veneer lumber is redi 1 to the 



astonishingly low price of $3 a thousand 

 te.i. In the old method the lumber or 

 thtehes costs from $70 to $100 a thousand 

 feet, and will only make about eight times 

 the board measurement, making a cost of 

 something like $10 a thousand feet, or a dif- 



■ oi $7 :i thousand feet in the cost of 



timber alone. It can be seen by this deduc- 

 tion that either quarter-sawed veneers will 

 be greatly cheapened in price or Mr. Robin- 

 son, tl wner of the patent, will reap a 



golden harvest. 



As the entire log is used in this process 

 from 3,000 to 9,000 feet of veneers can be 

 sawed from one log, all of which will have 

 the same character of figure, as well as the 

 same color, enabling the manufacturer to 

 turn out stock of a uniformity that cannot 

 be obtained iu the old way. 



The tilting stay-log has been attempted 

 several times before, but never successfully 

 used, because a lock or tilting device has 

 never been devised that would meet the re- 

 quirements of sawing veneers. When this 

 invention becomes known to the veneer trade 

 it is thought that it will supersede the old 

 rigid stay-log with its wasteful mode of man- 

 ufacturing veneers. 



