150 FOREST PRODUCTS 



The white oaks are felled and sawed by cross-cut saws into blocks 

 which are 2 in. longer than the intended staves. The sap line is demarked 

 with a pencil and inside the sap line with the help of a pattern showing 

 the cross-section of the staves, as many staves as -possible are pencil 

 marked. By the use of axes, wedges and wooden mauls, the block is 

 then halved, quartered and split out along the pencil marks. Staves 

 are split out along the medullary rays in order to insure the greatest 

 impermeability. The core of at least 4 in. in diameter containing the 

 small limb stubs is usually thrown away. The 

 rough staves are inspected, sorted and piled in a 

 hollow square or " hog-pen fashion " for air dry- 

 ing. As a rule, woodsmen do this work by con- 

 tract, supplying their own tools. The rough 

 staves after being thoroughly air dried are run 

 through the stave bucker, by which three- 

 quarters of all the rived staves are made in 

 FIG. 34 Diagram showing the United States. This machine dresses and 



method of riving staves j anes both gides Q ^ staye t() cur _ 



from a white oak log. Both . r 



the sap and heart are com- vature and thickness. A rack forces the rough 



monly wasted. staves through the narrow space left between 



two knives which are fastened in a rocking 



frame. The knives are either straight or curved to correspond to 

 the periphery of the barrel. Sometimes the staves are run through 

 a stave dresser instead of through the bucker. The dresser carries 

 knives on two cutter heads, dressing and shaping the staves on 

 both sides to proper thickness and leaving either an abrupt or gradual 

 shoulder. Rived staves finished in this way are much less permeable 

 than staves cut out on the circular drum saw, because the latter does not 

 always follow the grain of the wood. 



Logging and Delivering Bolts. 



In logging bolts for sawed staves, woodsmen fell the trees and cross- 

 cut them into bolts which vary in length from 18 to 38 in. Those for 

 heading are usually 22 in. long while those for staves are 37 to 38 in. long, 

 depending upon the economy of waste. A 3O-in. bolt is the minimum 

 length for staves. The cutters go up the tree trunk as far as the grades 

 justify, being limited only by size and the number of limbs and defects 

 that may be present. 



The operating season is customarily a year long. Bolts are halved 

 and quartered on the ground with a wedge, wooden maul or sledge ham- 



