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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



Problems in Handling Veneer 



The Substitution of Women for Men Holds Promise of Good Results 



nY7|ENEER HANDLING furnishes some interestir.g 

 =? y combinations of Kght and heavy work that are 

 I ' •i^ ■ I deserving of special study, because it is becom- 

 ing necessary to man a good part of the industry 

 with girls, and the successful handling of this shift will 

 depend largely on knowledge and understanding. It will 

 perhaps be found in the final adjustment that in the light 

 work calling for steadiness and quickness of action the 

 girls will prove eminently satisfactory. But it is advisable 

 to keep them away from the heavier and more burden- 

 some work. Veneer handling at the rotary machine 

 starts with the pulling out of the machine the stock as it is 

 cut. The handling of the logs and blocks up to this point 

 is pretty heavy work and plainly a man's job. Gener- 

 ally, too, the handling of the veneer from the machine is 

 a man's job. 



Sometimes handling the pull-out stock is a compara- 

 tively light work. Say a machine is cutting 1 20th stock. 

 Quick-acting girls properly clothed in overalls and after 

 proper training should be able to handle this fully as satis- 

 factorily as the young men who are generally used. The 

 work is light enough so far as pulling out and piling up on 

 the table for clipping is concerned. It is in clipping out 

 that an element of heaviness enters. Much, however, de- 

 pends upon the practice followed. At some plants, stock 

 is piled six, eight and ten inches thick before clipping out. 

 Where this is done the work of handling the clipping and 

 the stock from the clipper is really heavy work, as is also 

 the task of running the trucks from the clipper to the 

 dryer or shed, where they are to be unloaded. 



Where the practice is to clip in lighter body, girls can 

 handle the clipping, and the trucking can be lightened 

 and simplified by using roller bearings and rubber tires, 

 which experts in the veneer business claim are the final 

 ideal in the veneer truck. 



When we get away from the veneer machine to the 

 handling of veneer in single sheets for drying, or for 

 packing after drying, the work can generally be classed 

 as light, and properly trained girls should give excellent 

 satisfaction. There is some suggestion of resemblance 

 between handling veneer through a modern dryer and 

 laundry work where girls do practically all of it. More- 

 over, one of our important lines of patent dryer is the 

 development of a concern which previously specialized in 

 textile dryers. So there again we have a sort of con- 

 necting link between the veneer industry and the use of 

 feminine help. 



In the piling and handling of veneer in sheets and the 

 handling of the smaller articles produced in the veneer 

 plant, it has been the practice for years to use boys and 

 young men. These can be employed at smaller wages 

 than the older men, and they are quicker of action. 

 Quickness is one of the essentials in handling light stock. 



.And when boys are in the right mood they are given to 

 quick action. The trouble with the average boy is that 

 he has lazy spells and unless he is repeatedly jogged up 

 he will too often go into slow speed. To some extent it 

 may be found the girls are afflicted the same way, but the 

 use of girls in the basket factory and the making of light 

 packages has demonstrated that they are more efficient 

 and more adaptable to the work than boys. 



It is very likely that after the girls have once been 

 introduced into the veneer industry and we have become 

 accustomed to their presence in the veneer plant, they 

 will continue to make good and hold their place, even 

 when peace comes and men are available. There is not 

 only room for the girls to make a place for themselves in 

 the work of handling veneer, from the cutting through 

 the dryer and finishing and packing process, but in the 

 panel plant and among the veneer users there are oppor- 

 tunities with even bigger promise for the ambitious ones. 



One of the great needs in the veneer-using industry is 

 for expert handlers and assemblers of figured veneer. 

 This includes both the blending of ordinary lesser figure 

 for harmony and the matching up of fancy figure. Here 

 the girls with an eye for the artistic have their oppor- 

 tunity. There is a chance also that through the training 

 of girls in this work the veneer users may be able to get 

 help at a place where they have long seemingly needed it. 



There has been in the past too much careless assem- 

 bling of veneer; too much disregard of harmony and of 

 matching and blending of figure. We are reaching the 

 period in our cabinet work where the discriminating 

 buyers insist upon pleasing effects in their veneered work 

 and upon the eliminating of slipshod workmanship. 

 They are willing to pay an additional cost for proper 

 regard for beauty and consistency in assembling face 

 veneer. 



Very few girls or women are as familiar with the wood 

 as men, so they may seem to be at a disadvantage at first. 

 Many of them, however, have a keener sense of beauty 

 and of the artistic than men, so when they are once 

 trained to distinguish and discriminate between woods, 

 they are likely to prove superior to the average man in 

 assembling and matching veneer. 



The handling of veneer is one place where the industry 

 stands in need of help. It is a line of work that is full 

 of promise for girls and women, full of promise both to 

 Employer and employee, provided they have an ambition 

 to learn and a desire to attain a real place for themselves 

 in the industry. 



The thickest regular 

 1 inch. If It should be 

 dered as lumber. 



thicker than tha 



five-sixteenths of 

 it would be con- 



