38 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



VENEERS 



PIANO VENEERING 



One of the most extensive sources or veneer 

 consumption is the manufacture of high-grade 

 piano cases. In this line of production prac- 

 tically the entire article, both inside and out, 

 is made of built-up stock, which is better 

 suited to this industry, both from an economic 

 and a mechanical point of view, than solid 

 wood. With almost no exceptions, five-ply 

 wood is required, the gluing up being in 

 most cases done by the piano concerns them- 

 selves. Those instances requiring stock thicker 

 than five-ply are found in the construction of 

 grand pianos, in the rims and tops, and in 

 other lines of special construction. 



Considerable dilEculty is usually experienced 

 in securing core stock in the common Ameri- 

 can woods of sufiieient dryness to allow of 

 immediate utilization. As a consequence, the 

 manufacturers of high-grade pianos employ 

 their own kilns and subject all lumber to an 

 extensive redrying process, which often covers 

 a period of from two to five weeks. At the 

 Chicago factory of George P. Bent & Co., 

 where the famous Crown pianos are manu- 

 factured, the additional precaution of air- 

 drying for eighteen months to three years is 

 found advantageous. Post stock requires an 

 especially long period. 



Lumber of standard dimensions is called 

 for, there being numerous ways of utilizing 

 the waste, either in single pieces or as glued- 

 up blocks. While a large bulk of the stock 

 bought is firsts and seconds, there is a good 

 percentage of Ko. 1 common, but never any- 

 thing lower except in the cheaper instru- 

 ments. Of our common American woods, 

 several species are used, mostly for cores and 

 cross-banding, but to a more limited extent 

 for back facing. Soft gray No. 1, common 

 and better elm, from Michigan, is most favor- 

 ably thought of, especially among western 

 manufacturers, in making up piano backs, 

 and is faced on high-grade instruments with 

 birdseye maple. Oregon fir and, in the East, 

 pine are also consumed in large quantities in 

 this connection. Three-inch elm is employed 

 largely for posts, and is often sawed to di- 

 mensions at the factory before redrying, to - 

 facilitate that process. Chestnut, which is 

 commonly used in all lines of veneer work, 

 finds no little employment for end cores, but 

 is not used elsewhere as extensively as other 

 woods, for high-class pianos. The more par- 

 ticular and more decorative features, such 

 as fronts, falls, tops and coves, call for a 

 higher type of wood. For these purposes 

 quarter-sawed poplar and quaiter-sawed ash, 

 to a smaller extent, are generally considered 

 best adapted. Pin blocks require a hard, 

 tough wood, and are made from firsts and 

 seconds hard maple, covered with a three-ply 

 veneer of quarter-sawed maple, and some- 

 times faced with birdseye. Ash is the only 

 other common wood found in the piano make- 

 up, and is glued up with poplar into rims for 

 grands. 



Of the so-called precious woods used for 

 facing veneer, mahogany', walnut, Circassian, 

 and rosewood form the main bulk of consump- 

 tion, mahogany being consumed in larger 

 quantities, probably, than any of the others. 

 Of the various kinds of mahogany, Mexican 

 and Cuban are credited with being most 

 favorably thought of among jiiano manufac- 

 turers, owing to their well-known beauty after 

 aging. It is not to be inferred, however, that 

 African wood is not used, as there is probably 

 more of this tyi>e \ised than any other. In 

 view of the fact that the piano requires 

 slightly less than two hundred superficial feet 



of veneer — reckoning both inside and out and 

 waste — the total volume of the rare woods 

 employed is of exceptional proportions. Ve- 

 neer men in general look upon the piano 

 manufacturers as one of their surest lines of 

 trade. While there are what veneer manufac- 

 turers ■ commonly call ' ' piano logs, ' ' logs 

 fourteen inches to sixteen inches, or even up 

 to twenty-two inches in diameter, the usual 

 custom is to accept any reasonable widths 

 and lengths; stock eight inches and up is de- 

 sired, and lengths usually run at even inter- 

 vals, from ten to sixteen feet. The longest 

 material is used in the manufacture of rims 

 for grands. 



As previously noted, almost all veneered 

 panels are five-ply, and the piano concerns 

 do their own work, the usual gluing machines 

 and hydraulic presses being used. As in 

 other lines of panel manufacture, the process 

 is sometimes performed in one operation and 

 sometimes in two, according to the ultimate 

 thickness; but the best houses use the longer 

 and better method, almost universally. An 

 interesting departure from the common pro- 

 cedure is seen in forming special shapes and 

 ornamental curves. The solid core is usually 

 shaped in a moulder, but the process of giving 

 the required bend to the veneer is not so 

 simple. It is usually heated, preliminary to 

 the ultimate operation, and given an initial 

 shaping, as any attempt to bend a piece of 

 dry veneer over a form, without any prepara- 

 tion, would result disastrously. The parts 

 are glued up and then assembled and pressed 

 hydraulically in a caul-box. In making small 

 coves and sharp nosings of this kind, quarter- 

 sawed poplar, for the core, is recognized as 

 essential to a high grade of work. 



With a concern such as the Bent company, 

 turning out only the finest types of instru- 

 ments, rims for grand pianos present more or 

 less of a problem, in that a long period of 

 time is required in their manufacture ; it 

 sometimes takes as miich as six weeks, after 

 gluing up, before they are subjected to the 

 next process. Eleven layers of veneer are 

 commonly used, the seven to nine inner layers 

 being one-eighth inch thick, and alternately 

 quarter-sawed poplar and ash. and the facing 

 anything that may be prescribed. This proc- 

 ess is not only protracted, but is rather diifi- 

 cult and necessitates the use of steam and 

 heavy appliances. The glued-up lengths are 

 placed in heavy wooden moulds and are 

 brought to the required shape with powerful 

 clamps. It can be readily understood that 

 unsteamed wood of the thickness of one of 

 these panels could not well be so radically 

 bent without the aid of steaming. After re- 

 moval from the forms, the rims are allowed 

 to stand for the prescribed period before 

 further working. Of special interest, also, is 

 the manufacture of tops for the same style 

 of piano. Here seven-ply stock is used, and 

 is built up and cross-banded with quarter- 

 sawed yellow poplar entirely, it Ijeing a 

 straight panel proposition. 



There are but few radical departures in 

 piano manufacture from veneering in general, 

 the main differences being in special processes 

 designed to take care of individual require- 

 ments. It is, of course, essential to apply a 

 surface coat on the inside of all parts, exactly 

 similar to the outside veneer, it being a well- 

 known fact that an equal tension must be 

 maintained on both faces. To produce satis- 

 factory results in panel work, it is necessary 

 to restrict the core material to rather narrow 

 strips and to provide tongue and grooving 



for the heavier article. Wider sections would 

 result in warping or other damage. 



Each factory has little wrinkles of its own, 

 for which each claims superiority over the 

 others, and the modernly equipped Bent plant 

 is certainly no exception. Among the modem 

 time-saving devices in use there are a number 

 of Zimmerman 's Instantaneous Glue Convert- 

 ers, which are reported to be doing most 



excellent service. 



* * * 



The National Veneer & Panel Manufac- 

 turers' Association will hold its semi-annual 

 meeting at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., 



June 14 and 15. 



* * * 



Adams & Eaj'mond, veneer manufacturers 

 of Indianapolis, Ind., are installing a new 

 power plant equipped with a smoke preventive 



device. 



* * * 



A one-story brick factory building is being 

 erected at Kentucky avenue and Drover street, 

 Indianapolis, Ind., by the recently organized 

 Veneer Package Company. 



* * ^* 



F. M. Platter of the North Vernon Lumber 

 Company, North Vernon, Ind., is negotiating 

 for a tract of land just out of Dyersburg, 

 Tenn., on which he will establish a branch 

 mill. This will _probably include a veneer 

 factory of up-to-date construction and equip- 

 ment, as well as a large band mill. 



* * « 



The Buejia Vista Veneer Company at Des 

 Arc, Ark., has shut down for a brief time 

 to permit of extensive repairs in the plant. 

 The concern uses most of the material it cuts 

 in the manufacture of trunks. It reports busi- 

 ness fair and the demand active for what 

 stock it has to market, the principal difficulty 

 being in making collections. 



* # * 



The Sheffield Lumber Company of Sheffield, 

 Ala., which has just incorporated with a capi- 

 tal stock of $50,000, operates a box factory 

 and veneer mills and has a contract for sup- 

 plying the Krell Piano Company of Cincin- 

 nati with hardwood veneers of the highest 



grade. 



» * « 



Business with the Evansville Veneer Works 

 at Evansville, Ind., is reported as quite satis- 

 factory, and Charles W. Talge, manager of 

 the company, states that he is quite pleased 

 with luture prospects. Mr. Talge has been 

 spending a good deal of his time since the 

 first of the year at Jackson, Tenn., where his 

 company has erected a large sawmill in order 

 to supply its factory at Evansville with logs. 



* * * 



P. B. Fellwock of the Fellwock Auto & 

 Manufacturing Company of Evansville, Ind., 

 manufacturer of veneer rolls, states that the 

 company's factory will run full time, if not 

 over time, all year. He says that the demand 

 for veneers is showing constant improvement 

 and he believes that veneer people will reap a 

 harvest during the next few years. 



* * * 



The Blair Veneer Company, of North Troy, 

 Vt., has just completed a new addition to its 

 North Troy plant, which gives it about 2,500 

 feet of floor space. New dryers and another 

 veneer lathe have been added^ and this season 

 the company will operate four veneer lathes, 

 two at the plant at Montgomery and two at 

 North Troy. At the present time the concern 

 has between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 feet of 



fine hardwood logs. 



* * * 



The Anderson-Tully Company, manufac- 

 turer of hardwood lumber and veneers, pack- 

 ing boxes and egg cases, with headquarters 

 at Memphis, Tenn., is erecting a warehouse to 

 replace the one burned at Benton Harbor, 



