616 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



culiar dimpling is produced by the action of rosin blisters 

 in the bark which press into the cambium and cause the 

 new wood to be molded around them. 



One of the greatest sources of omate wood is to be 

 found in burls which are malformations of tree growth 

 produced by insect attack or other pathologic condition. 

 The most valuable burls are found at the roots. In wal- 

 nut they often weigh from 500 pounds to a ton. They are 

 so likely to be defective that it is a gamble as to how 

 they will open up in sawing. There are thousands of 

 little buds with little circlets of wood about them and 

 irregular pigment deposits which work up into fantastic 

 designs with little or no resemblance to normal wood. 

 The bowls of briar pipes are made from the burls of va- 



handles, is due to irregular pigmentation. Many of the 

 woods of the ebony family, to which our common persim- 

 mon belongs, are highly figured. The marble wood is black 

 and white, the Macassar ebony is black andreddish brown 

 the camagon of the Philippines is a mingling of various 

 light and dark shades. The yaya of Columbia is a nearly 

 white wood with piping of dark green, a rather unusual 

 color in wood. The snake wood or letter wood of the 

 American Tropics, a member of the mulberry family, 

 has peculiar black streaks which, instead of running up 

 and down the tree, radiate like the spokes of a wheel and 

 produce a pattern suggesting snakeskin. This wood is 

 principally in demand for canes and small turned articles, 

 as it is extremely dense and the core of heartwood, which 



THREE PANELS FROM THE SAME VENEERS 



The first is a panel made by matching four pieces of veneer sawed from an ash burl. The other two show othei 

 might have been made from a different arrangement of the same pieces of veneer. 



designs which 



rious shrubs belonging to the heath family the Ameri- 

 can "briar" coming from the mountain laurel. The Cali- 

 fornia redwood supplies burls which are made into all 

 sorts of novelties and souvenirs. 



Mention has been made of irregular deposits of pig- 

 ment. Some finely figured woods owe most or all of 

 their decorative value to this condition. Figured red 

 g^m, also variously known as "hazel," "hazel pine" and 

 "satin walnut," has a background* of brown with a beau- 

 tiful "watered" effect of dark color on it. Circassian 

 walnut combines this irregular coloration with the grain 

 produced by the growth rings and exhibits a more pro- 

 nounced figure. The figure of Brazilian rosewood and of 

 the goncalo alves, a South American tree of the sumac 

 family, and of the cocobola so extensively used for tool 



alone is figured, is very slender. English oak owes much 

 of its attractiveness to a peculiar mottling of dark brown 

 which is said to be the work of a fungus. In many 

 instances the color of wood is decidedly changed by fun- 

 gous attacks. 



In order to make the most of figured woods it is a 

 common practice to cut them into thin layers called 

 veneers, which are glued to a base or core of some less 

 valuable lumber. There are three ways of cutting these 

 veneers, one with a saw and the other two with a knife. 

 The saw used has a very thin edge and the veneers, which 

 are usually about one-twentieth of an inch thick, may be 

 finished on either face. This is a decided advantage 

 where it is desired to match the pieces and build up pat- 

 terns, and to this end veneers from a single log, stump. 



