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Promoting Hardwood Trim 



Do you fully realize the iuiportanc-e of house trim as an item in the 

 hardwood trade? Unless you have studied this subject in a broader 

 light and beyond the aetual volume of immediate consumption of hard- 

 wood in this work, the chances are that you do not realize its full im- 

 portance. It is not merely that hardwood trim has been an item of 

 some comparative importance during the past building season ; it is not 

 either merely that it has been a sort of saving grace in the trade in 

 many instances and has furnished one of the few bright spots in the 

 trade during the fall and summer; but beyond this there is interest 

 and importance in the fact that hardwood trim has an effect upon the 

 furniture trade. The hardwood trim used determines to quite an 

 extent the kind of furniture that will go into the homes. 



Take an office building, for example, and let the hardwood trim 

 be of mahogany throughovit, and the tendency toward mahogany 

 furniture among the occupants of a new building of this kind will be 

 very strong. Those who buy new furniture will buy mahogany out- 

 right. Some unable to afford the mahogany may buy birch stained; 

 others with oak furniture may abuse the good oak by staining it red 

 to harmonize with the mahogany trim. 



The same story holds true in house trim. If a man in building a 

 new home uses oak for the interior trim his preference will naturally 

 turn to oak for the furniture in everything from parlor to bed room. 

 If a part of the house is trimmed in oak and part in mahogany that 

 part which is trimmed in mahogany will likely be furnished in the 

 same wood or in birch. So if the parlor is finished in mahogany it 

 quite frequently means mahogany parlor furniture and piano ; if 

 the dining room is finished in mahogany it may lead to mahogany 

 dining room equipment, whereas, if it is finished in oak the entire 

 dining room outfit is likely to be oak. If the bedroom is finished in 

 maple with maple flooring, one ig likely to see maple chairs and 

 dresser and metal bed, whereas, if it is finished in gum, the people 

 are likely to turn to gum or Circassian walnut for this, and if oak, 

 oak will likely be the keynote to the furniture. 



When hardwood trim is looked at in this light — in the light of its 

 effect upon the furniture — and the fact is considered that it is often 

 the thing which decides the selection of furniture, one begins to realize 

 something of the importance of house trim to the hardwood trade. 

 fThe use of one kind of trim is a sort of opening wedge to a call for 

 more of that particular kind of lumber, whether it be in an office 

 or in a home. 



The subject under consideration now, however, is hardwood trim. 

 Flooring, though it might properly be considered a part of the hard- 

 wood trim of a home or an office building, is usually classed separately, 

 and under the classification of hardwood trim there is included the 

 interior casing and base, stairways, picture moulding, and paneling 

 where panels are used. There has been a material increase in the use 

 of practically all of our native hardwoods in interior trim during 

 the past few years.' It has grown into a factor of some importance 

 itself and when the effect it has on the selection of furniture wood is 

 considered, the importance of hardwood trim as a factor is multiplied. 

 In this development of the trade in hardwood trim those interested in 

 promoting various kinds of wood give the matter some attention but 

 too often the manufacturers and dealers in hardwoods themselves have 

 rather neglected this phase of the matter because it doesn't call for a 

 big enough volume of lumber in any one locality. It is a trade that is 

 scattered and while it amounts to considerable in the aggregate it is 

 made up of comparatively small units. For this reason it has been 

 somewhat neglected. 



There is another reason, too, that interferes or rather at times acts 

 as a handicap to the progress of hardwood trim, and that is its cost 

 as compared to yellow pine. When people figure on gum, for example, 

 as compared to yellow pine they find that the millwork for a house runs 

 up into big figures notwithstanding the fact that originally the rough 

 lumber may not have cost a great deal more. The same thing is true 

 when oak is compared with pine, and often the man who is going to 

 build and is inclined to use hardwood trim balks at the extra cost 

 and wonders what causes it. 



One important cause is to be found in the difference in practice 

 in the matter of planing millwork and preparing trim. The big yellow 

 pine mills as a rule operate planing mills and have established standard 

 patterns to which much of the pine finish for trim is worked in great 

 quantities at the mill before it is shipped out. This makes it practical 

 to furnish yellow pine trim dressed to pattern at practically the same 

 price as the rough lumber where the freight rate is an important item 

 because the saving in freight on the dressed stock pays for the work 

 of dressing. When one figures stock of this kind against oak, gum or 

 other hardwoods whicli must be bought in the rough, then milled to 

 pattern in small quantities for each individual order there is a sharp 

 addition to the cost, entirely aside from the difference in value or the 

 cost of the lumber originally. This has at times proven a somewhat 

 serious handicap to the progress of hardwood trim. 



Some of the bu'ch people have set a splendid example in tliis line. 

 They have developed the practice of working birch to pattern in quan- 

 tities and of supplying it to the trade ready to put up just as yellow 

 pine is supplied in standard pattern. Some of the sash and door 

 jobbing houses handle birch trim right along with sash, doors and 

 moulding because it is dressed to pattern and at times cut to length 

 so that it is ready to use. This example is one that might well be 

 followed by those interes^ted in pushing gum, oak and other hardwoods, 

 wlio hilve not yet taken up with this idea as they should. The tendency 

 of the hardwood sawmill man has been to fight shy of the planing mill 

 idea because it adds to the expense of his equipment. Many of them 

 may be right in this attitude. Assuming that they are, then the idea 

 of pushing hardwood trim would suggest a necessity for some central 

 planing mill plant or a centralizing of their stock for this purpose 

 at some shipping point where it can be dressed to standard pattern 

 in quantities and be supplied to retail lumber yards and others ready to 

 go in place at a price that will not make such a striking difi'erenee 

 IxHween it and the soft woods. There will, of course, always be a call 

 for certain patterns and a great amount of millwork to be done to 

 special orders, to architects' or builders' specifications. There is con- 

 siderable of this even in the softer woods with all their standard pat- 

 terns. Even so, however, there is evidently room to develop a much 

 larger trade in hardwood trim by following out in some rational man- 

 ner the idea of supplying it dressed to standard patterns pretty much 

 as pine and birch are supplied today. This will not only make it avail- 

 able at lower cost for the standard but it will encourage the use of the 

 hardwood in standard pattern and this in turn will help promote 

 hardwood in special patterns and thus enlarge the entire volume of 

 trade in the millwork line. Another thing worthy of consideration in 

 this connection is, the more hardw-ood trim the people use the more 

 they will turn to hardwood floors, and finally it is an important factor 

 in deciding the choice of furniture wood. So the promoting of hard- 

 wood trim is easily an idea worth while. It doesn't merely need 

 serious consideration, it needs active exploitation. It doesn't need 

 merely talking about and the showing of hardwood trim and paneling 

 at expositions, but it needs some practical work along the line of 

 making hardwood trim available to the average home builder at a 

 price that is not out of reason. The birch people have set a good 

 example along the right line that other hardwood people might well 

 follow and even go it one better if they can see the way clear. There 

 is perhaps no other field for lumber trade development that will yield 

 bigger returns to the hardwood fraternity than persistent effort 

 directed in the exploiting of hardwood trim. 



Coming Across 



The South Indian Eailway has asked for bids from manufacturers 

 in the United States on supplying a number of freight locomotives. 

 The order for these was placed in Germany last summer, but troubles 

 in that country prevented the filling of the contract, which has now 

 been cancelled. Thus one by one the people in all parts of the world are 

 turning to America to have their wants supplied, and it is fortunate 

 for all concerned that America is in a position to take upon itself 

 this extra work. 



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