HARDWOOD RECORD 



imndiM arc li»te.l, and tlio kin.ls of «oo<l uwd for obcIi are given. 

 It is thus made nppnrrnt that differt'nt handles demand different sorts 

 of wood; some are quite clienp, others cxpousive; Boino must be very 

 strong, others net'd moderate strenuth only. 



.\nother illu.Htration is found in the treatment of the novelty in- 

 dustry. Instead of conaiderinf: it as a whole and in a general wiiy, 

 a list is presented of sixty kinds of novelties ttiado in Pennsylvanin. 

 with pictures of the articles and descriptions of the woods used. Sim- 

 ilar treatment is accorded the woodenware industry. Photo ongraviuKS 

 give a clear understanding of what the various articles of wooden- 

 ware are. The industry listed as "Machine Construction" is not 

 left in that vague form, but twenty-four kinds of mncliines are named, 

 and the woods used in the construction of each one of them arc given. 



The toy industry includes twenty-nine sorts of toys, which are sopa- 

 rately listed, and the woods entering into the construction of OBch 

 kind are shown. More than fifty wooden parts of the piano are given 

 by name and by drawings, and the woods of which each part is made 

 are named. Another list contains sixty two woods employed by mak 

 era of canes and umbrella handles; and pictures of twenty seven styles 

 of canes and handles accompany the description. 



Great dilTerenccs arc shunn in the number and variety of uses of 

 woods in Pennsylvania. A few arc reporteil for only one use, while 

 several fill more than one hundred diflTerent places in factories which 

 produce articles of wood. Black walnut has 15G uses, sweet birch 357, 

 hard maple 375, yellow poplar 423, and white oak beads the list 

 with 752 uses. 



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Some Helpful Saw Suggestions "5^ 



Edger Saws 

 One can find in going about the country some strangly contrasting 

 opinions about edger saws. Here and there you will find a man who 

 delights in running thin saws and is an enthusiast for them, thinks 

 they are the means of saving lumber, and also of saving power. Then 

 maybe, about the time you are persuaded that his theory is the 

 right one and are wondering why everybody doesn't follow it, you 

 run across a man who goes up in the air when you talk thin saws to 

 him. It is all largely a matter of opinion influenced by experience. 

 The man who is an advocate of the thick saw has generally had some 

 troublesome experiences with thin ones and it has so prejudiced him 

 against them that he will not consider them. 



When the thin saw idea first attained popular favor it began with 

 mill saws, which were reduced down from 6 and 7 gauge to 8 and 9 

 and finally to 9 and 10. This spirit reached the edger saw soon after 

 and edger saws were made thinner in proportion than the mill saws. 

 This happened in advance of the time of great skill in swaging and 

 caring for thin saw teeth. The mill saws were thick enough to 

 swage and handle in the original way, but the edger saws were so 

 thin that often they were set by springing the points, each alternate 

 point in different direction to get set in the saw. 



While the?e were keen and sharp, they did very well on soft wood, 

 but in the course of time they would wear, rounding on the outer 

 corner and continued springing. If carelessly done, would result in 

 getting a hump just back of the tooth point, so that it really did 

 not clear itself as it should. Then the thin edger saws would go bad. 

 They would hit hard streaks in the lumber and sheer out a little and 

 the lumber would wedge between them, generating, and a bad matter 

 would soon become worse. 



There was a lot of trouble of this kind with many edgers, and it 

 took some millmen quite a while to understand the cause. Many of 

 them at that time found the solution to the trouble by using thicker 

 saws and a swage set the same as the mill saws. Those who turned 

 to these for relief found the difference so great that they were done 

 with thin saws for edgers. Others found relief in a different man- 

 ner. It was about the time people began to develop skill in swaging 

 and filing thin saws, and some of them found relief in this way and 

 still retained their thin saws. They are the fellows who today are still 

 ardent advocates of thin saws. 



Wo are in much better position today to get good service out of 

 thin edger saws than in times gone by. The band saw, which is 

 perforce a thin blade, has served to train saw filers in the swaging 

 and filing of thin saws until today they can put proper corners on a 

 thin edger saw and it will stand up to its work much better than in 

 the old days when the spring set was resorted to. 



There are, however, cases of severe service where the thicker saws 

 really should be given a preference in edger work. If it is a high 

 feed with hard knots and heavy power behind it, it may be found 

 that the thin saws give more trouble than they save power and tim- 

 ber. When that is the case one should not let the thin saw idea get 

 the better of common sense. Take the thick saw and get satisfac- 

 tion out of the work. It is the more sensible plan. 



The Oang Sip Saw 



The gang rip saw is just as important a machine, compared to the 

 single bench or rip saw, as the gang edger in the mill, compared with 

 the old time single side edger. This is a fact, however, that has not 

 been so generally recognized as have the advantages of the gang 

 edger in the mill. When it comes to ripping up stock into strips or 

 dimensions anywhere away from the gang edger itself, there has been 

 a pretty general use of the single rip saw except in the making of 

 lath and very small articles of that kind. At first it was a single 

 hand feed rip saw, and this was clung to persistently after the 

 advantages of the power feed were well established. By anil by 

 the advantages of the power feed were recognized both in Uie 

 quantity of the work and in lessening the burden of hand labor, and 

 now some attention is being given to the subject of gang rip saws. 

 They are not yet receiving all the favor they merit, otherwise there 

 would be more of them in use. The gang rip saw has substantially 

 the same advantages as the gang edger when one is ripping strips or 

 dimension stock of which there is more than one piece in a board or 

 a flitch. There is a saving of time and money in the use of gang 

 saws in proportion to the width of the stock and the number of gangs 

 used. In ripping lumber for narrow flooring the gang will do twice 

 the work of the single saw and the same advantage is easily obtain- 

 able in ripping short stock of various kinds into small dimensions. 

 There is, of course, room for the single rip saw in the working of 

 stock which may vary in dimensions with every few pieces, but 

 where there is any quantity of narrow stock dimensions to be made, 

 the gang rip saw offers enough advantages to easily justify the extra 

 cost and power required in its operation. 



Cross-Cut Bench Appliances 

 Some years ago there was quite an extensive exploitation of a 

 variety of cross-cut or swing saw bench appliances intended to facil- 

 itate cutting to various lengths. Most of the appliances were of the 

 automatic or semi-automatic stop gage order and some of them proved 

 disappointing because of a lack of accuracy. The exploitation of 

 these things is not so active now, but those that are offered and 

 being used seem to be more satisfactory, and all of them offer 

 advantages over the older practices of using measuring rods and stop 

 chocks; and if they are properly installed they can be kept reasonably 

 accurate. In other words, it seems worth while to equip any swing 

 saw bench with something of this kind because of the advantages 

 offered. 



In times gone by, many of the prominent importers of mahogany 

 questioned the import figures of the Bureau of Statistics at 

 Washington, claiming that they do not represent anything like the 

 total quantity. Comparing the figures on imports with the estimate 

 of the quantity of mahogany consumed annually we have the Forest 

 Service figures on consumption as 50,.575,999 feet. For the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1913, the import statistics show 66,318,000 feet im- 

 ported. Striking an average of four years, total import figures give 

 47,555,000 feet, so evidently the Bureau of Statistics is not far out 

 on the import statistics on mahogany. 



