CABINET-MAKING. 587 



wood which is easily worked, with, or against, the grain. He 

 therefore means quite a different kind of oak wood from that 

 esteemed by the ship-builder when he speaks of good oakwood, 

 and prefers that of the sessile to the pedunculate oak. The 

 best cabinet-maker's oakwood comes from Eussia, the Spessart, 

 the Pfalz, the Silesian mountains, from French high forests, 

 and generally from mountain districts with a slow rate of 

 growth ; on account of its lower density it is less liable to 

 shrinkage. Slavonian oak and that from coppice-with- 

 standards is much less prized. 



Beechwood would be prized much more highly for furni- 

 ture, on account of its dense uniform texture, were it more 

 frequently obtainable from middling sized trees in quarter- 

 balks from which the core of the tree has been excluded. 

 Such wood is excellent material for working up, and is now 

 being used extensively for bent-wood* furniture. 



Thoroughly sound beech stem-wood free from knots is used 

 for bent- wood furniture, and young wood is preferred to old. 

 Even large pieces may be bent easily, and the bending 

 dispenses with sharp corners, dovetailing and glueing, the 

 pieces merely being bent and screwed together. The wood is 

 felled in summer and sawn into rectangular pieces 6 to 10 feet 

 long and 1J to 2 inches in diameter, which give a waste of 60 

 to 70 per cent. 



Veneers of maple, walnut, and less frequently of beech, are 

 glued together and made into the seats of chairs. These 

 are being used in increasing numbers. 



Amongst softwoods of broadleaved species, planks of poplar- 

 wood are used chiefly under veneer ; that of the black poplar 

 or of the Canadian (Italian) poplar is preferred, the wood of 

 the white poplar being very subject to cup-shake. The 

 greenish-yellow wood of the tulip tree, Liriodendron tidipi- 

 ferum, known as poplar-wood, or whitewood, is exported 

 extensively in large balks from America to Europe to serve as 

 backing for veneer. These woods are of very uniform texture, 

 and the spring-wood does not shrink so much as in other 

 woods, causing the summer-wood to project beyond it and 



* Sec an excellent article by Exner on bending wood, in the Ccntralblatt fiir 



(his irr.-amk' Foi>f wrscii. |X7<!. 



