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The Lumbermen s Round Table 



A CHANCE I OR AMERICAN WALNUT 



Tbiuj-s .-Hfiii to linvi- Ihh'ii " l<riiikinn " in liixor of AiniTiiiiii liliiik 

 Miilnut of liitc. IVrlinpn tlic Miilmit inpn nro umisiinlly Rlirend, ;ni<l 

 h.-ivo lioon looking; iilioml ; <ir. mi llio oilier liniul, tliey niny merely he 

 !in'ky. At nil events, tlieir |>r<>|u>sitioii has lieeii profilnble from hoiiu' 

 ■ f the trade developments tlmt liiive been recorded recently. 



Tnke tlie movement townrd brown noodH, for instance. It happened 

 iiist nt n time when black walnut was beinj; revived, .ind made it easy 

 M get ^ta^ted on it. Xow the Kuropenn war has bobbed up, and 

 • >ne of the first result.s is a shortage of Circassian walnut, actual or 

 l>otenlial. People who use this wood are eiuleavoring to cover thi-ir 

 re<iuirements, of course, and may be able to get enough ahead to take 

 rare of their wants for the inmiediate future; but there is not a great 

 ■leal of Circassian in the country, the stocks nt Liverpool arc light, 

 and the movement from the Caspian Sea lias already been cut ofT. 

 according to reliable information. 



The natural result will be that those who have been using the 

 imported walnut will turij to the American variety. It is possible to 

 get effects with black walnut veneers that are not very far from 

 Circassian, while both of them belong to the walnut family and the 

 brown group of woods. It is hard to see, therefore, how the walnut 

 men can help profiting from the latest development. 



Of course, if importations of mahogany, which can Imj supplied from 

 Mexico and Central America as well as Africa, arc seriously interfered 

 with, there may l)e an even bigger rush in the direction of American 

 black walnut, and quartered oak should be similarly helped. But there 

 is not the defiuiteness to prospects in this connection that attaches to 

 the Circassian walnut situation. 



THE MARKET FOE CRATING 



Since most luniiufacturecl ;irticlos have to t)e jirutci-teil from the 

 hardships of railway transportation, practically every factory is a 

 consumer of low-grade lumber used for crating purposes. Wood- 

 working factories usually make their own, though some, which buy 

 better lumber for manuf.vturing purposes than they care to use to 

 make packages out of, are constantly in the market for material for 

 that purpose. Mctahvorking concerns of all kinds have to buy lumber; 

 and aside from the necessity of purchasing material for pattern work 

 in the foundry trade, there is need of it in making crates. 



This is mentioned merely to emphasize a big field for low-grade 

 stock that is often overlooked. A certain hardwood man, who had an 

 accumulation of lumber, began to look into this situation, and dis- 

 covered that he was in the biggest stove manufacturing center in his 

 part of the country. He liadn 't noticed it before, but when he 

 investigated he learned that these .concerns were regular buyers of 

 crating lumber, and he had no difficulty in making enough sales to 

 move a good part of the material. He also learned that while formerly 

 the railways permitted stoves to be shipped in carload lots uncrated. 

 they are now required to crate each separate item, even though a full 

 carload is being moved. That calls for much more lumber, of course. 



While it is true that low grades usually sell jirctty readily, there is 

 no reason why the lumberman should not be familiar with every section 

 of the consuming field ; and he is not, unless he knows .something about 

 the crating lumber situation. 



THE DEMAND FOR FIGURE 



The peculiarities and the changing fancies of the consuming trade 

 are never better illustrated than in connection with requirements as 

 to figure. One year the furniture man may want lumber and veneers 

 with a marked figure, and another plain faces may be desired. Now 

 the piano manufacturers may ask for extreme figure in their material, 

 and then again some of them may go to the other extreme. 



It is odd, however, to note that the coffin manufacturers are among 

 those who like well figured woods. They take as much pride in working 

 up a casket whicli shows a fine figure in mahogany or quartered oak 

 as any of the members of the furniture trade. On account of the fact 

 that there is a prejudice against the use of veneers in this business, 

 figure is not found to such an extent as it would be otherwise; but 

 even with solid woods the manufacturers have been able to develop 



going nut (if style, and the oipoM-d 

 probably liiis something to do with 

 lii'li will have In run the gamut frmn 

 the plainer cnnibinationH. 



•■'1,, i„,l..|~..|nr .-trc-l.s :i~ lo li-ul,. ..:..! I..1.. ■■|:l.,ua llillll up" f,- 



all they are »vorlh. 



The fnct that covered wnods an 

 wood surfaces are taking the lead 

 the situation in the casket trailc, « 

 big figures and extreme elTcrls ti 



FOPLAB FOR CROSSBANOINa 



One big reason why poplar will always remain a leader for crosx 

 banding purposes is because it is one of the ensicst woods in the world 

 to dry and keep flat. Some woods are hard to dry perfectly, goixK 

 into the work either too green, which will cause trouble Inter on, i.r 

 loo dry, in which case they are apt to be brittle. 



If the crossbanding is brittle and hard, a break may easily occur, 

 causing a lap-over of the edges of the broken iiarl. This may not Im- 

 noticed; but when the furniture manufacturer or the panel man is 

 finishing his work and sanding oiT the goods, the sander will cut right 

 through the spot where the lapped nmterial is sticking out, practically 

 ruining the entire piece. Uy the time the face veneer is taken olT 

 and the crossbanding either replaced or repaired, a good deal of work 

 has been -spent on it; and even if it is possible to jiatch the panel, it 

 will not be worth very much compared with its original value. 



Using the right material in the first place is thus pretty goml 

 insurance against having excessive spoilage, and the people who are 

 making poplar veneers for crossbanding work can well emphasize this 

 feature of their product. 



IS THIS "OLD STUFF?" 



"1 see that one of Uncle Sam's foresters." said a veteran lumber 

 man recently, "has 'discovereil ' that a good way to work up short 

 ends of lumber is to use them in the manufacture of brush bucks. 

 This is nothing new, though it may have appeared to be novel to the 

 forestry expert. This has been done for a long time, within niv 

 knowledge, and is one obvious outlet for ofl"al of this description." 



All right, come again, Mr. Forester! 



THE REAL THING IN SERVICE 



"Everybody is talking about 'service" nowadays," said a well 

 known lumber salesman. "It sounds good, of course, to tell your 

 customers that you have the service, but when you get right down to 

 brass tacks, wliat do you mean by thati 



"If you mean that your lumber is better, grade for grade, than tin- 

 other fellow's, why don't you say so? Ordinarily, though, you don "t 

 mean it. Do you refer to your ability to ship more quickly than your 

 competitors? Most consumers think that the lumbermen are all too 

 active in this direction. Do you allow any better terms than most 

 others in the trade? If you do, .just come out and cut the price and 

 quit disguising it under another name. 



"Service, to my way of thinking, however, is something entirely 

 diflferent. It consists of helping the consumer to use the lumber to 

 the best possible advantage. We can't always analyze his factory 

 conditions so as to do this, but sometimes we can suggest how he can 

 save money by substituting a lower grade or a cheaper wood for some- 

 thing he is now using, and in that way cut off considerable cxpcnsi'. 

 Not many salesmen incline to this method, but it is real service — and it 

 gets the business." 



IS INTERIOR FINISH POORLY MADE? 



Is there anything radically wrong with the methods of manufacturing 

 interior finish, such as doors, panels, etc..' 



This query is suggested by the fact that one can easily find glaring 

 defects in this character of work in most of the buildings where it h'ls 

 been installed for any length of time. 



The writer was recently in a big hotel which has a lot of very hand 

 some woodwork, especially panels. Practically all of these, however, 

 are badly marred by checks and cracks, possibly due to the use of 

 green material or the lack of crossbanding. 



The interior finish field is one that will stand a lot of expansion and 

 help the lumber business materially; but defective work of this kind 

 is certainly a poor advertisement for the business, and is not likely to 

 influence others to use the same methods. 



