"BUILT-UP WOOD" 



1413 



significant that even under the price conditions existing 

 today a suprisingly large number of laminated articles, by 

 efficient utilization and manufacture, is being produced 

 and marketed in competition with the solid form of con- 

 struction. 



Another factor with which built-up wood will have to 

 contend for its general adoption is that of buyers' preju- 

 dice or custom. Custom has a strong hold upon the 

 average person, particularly the rural citizen, in relation 

 to the tools and equipment which he uses in his work. 

 The average farmer, for example, will have to be shown 

 that a laminated wagon tongue or bolster is serviceable 

 and "worth the money." In the immediate development of 

 markets for built-up wood intended to replace solid 

 wood, price competition 

 will, therefore, be neces- 

 sary to establish the ser- 

 viceability of many articles. 



To the average forester 

 and lumberman a general 

 transition to built-up wood 

 probably appears far dis- 

 tant or doubtful. The 

 limits of its commercial 

 practicability are, to be 

 sure, indeterminate and 

 problematical, but, from 

 the standpoint of satisfac- 

 tory service, there seem to 

 be no limits to its possible 

 substitution for most forms 

 of solid wood. Even built- 

 up railroad ties and tele- 

 phone poles, while extreme 

 examples, are by no means 

 beyond the realm of possi- 

 bility. Further research 

 may be counted upon to 

 make available glues that 

 will be absolutely imperv- 

 ious to moisture and bac- 

 teria, and to determine ac- 

 curately the factors of 

 safety for all different 

 types and forms of built- 

 up wood. It will then 

 become possible to use it 

 with intelligence, economy, 

 fail to be impressed by the possibilities of built-up wood 

 as a factor of utilization. Not only would it make pos- 

 sible the saving of a large percentage of present woods 

 and mill waste, but conceivably it would revolutionize 

 beneficially the present milling and grading practices for 

 many species. Select and clear material, the value of 

 which is now lost in under-sizes or discounted by low 

 grade classification, could be utilized and valued on the 

 basis of the number of clear cuttings produced, the 

 method being somewhat the same, only far more inten- 

 sive ; as that now used with the more valuable hardwoods 

 and shop grades of softwoods. This general practice 



TWO TYPES OF LAMINATED SHOE LASTS ARE ILLUSTRATED IN 

 THIS PHOTOGRAPH. THE UPPER LAST IS MADE WITH VERTI- 

 CAL LAMINATIONS AND THE LOWER ONE WITH HORIZONTAL 

 LAMINATIONS. THESE LASTS ARE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE 

 OF SHOES AND RECEIVE A MUCH HARDER SERVICE THAN THE 

 ORDINARY SHOE TREE. THE SOLID LASTS ARE USUALLY MADE 

 OF MAPLE AND BIRCH AND THE LOSSES INCURRED IN THE 

 SEASONING OF THE BLOCKS AND THE MANUFACTURE OF THE 

 LASTS ARE NORMALLY RATHER GREAT. SEVERAL SHOE FAC- 

 TORIES ARE COOPERATING WITH THE FOREST PRODUCTS 

 LABORATORY IN TESTING OUT THE SERVICEABILITY OF THE 

 LAMINATED LASTS. WHILE NO DEFINITE RESULTS HAVE AS 

 YET BEEN OBTAINED, PRESENT INDICATIONS ARE THAT LAM- 

 INATED LASTS. BUILT UP WITH WATER-RESISTANT GLUES 

 WILL BE QUITE SATISFACTORY. 



and safety. One cannot and utilization standards, 



would, in turn, stimulate similar refinement in stump- 

 age valuation and would go far toward valuing the tree 

 on its actual contents of clear material. In brief, the in-- 

 fluence of defects upon surrounding clear material would 

 be reduced to an almost negligible minimum, while milling 

 practices would automatically be adjusted to an intensive 

 manufacture either of small-dimension material for lami- 

 nated manufacture in the wood-using industries or to 

 standardized built-up, ready-to-use building lumber for 

 the retail trade, or both. Furthermore, other species of 

 wood now more or less unusable could be brought into 

 use — eucalyptus, for example, because of the practica- 

 bility of drying it satisfactorily in small dimensions. 

 A general utilization movement of the intensiveness 



suggested above would nat- 

 urally exercise a direct in- 

 fluence upon the practice of 

 forestry. Instead of man- 

 aging timber lands on long 

 rotations, the raising of 

 young forests under short 

 rotations would be practi- 

 cable, and foresters in 

 working out their silvicul- 

 tural plans would give spe- 

 cial weight in the selection 

 of species to their economic 

 value for laminated or 

 built-up use. Short rota- 

 tions, in most instances, 

 mean greater quantity pro- 

 duction, higher financial re- 

 turns from forest invest- 

 ments, and enhanced soil 

 values, while a wider range 

 of species utilization, which 

 laminated construction 

 makes possible, would tend 

 further to increase quantity 

 production. 



Forestry has great diffi- 

 culty in many regions in 

 commending itself as a 

 profitable or desirable fi- 

 nancial investment because 

 of the long rotations neces- 

 sitated by present lumber 

 but built-up wood would 

 largely remove that difficulty by making practicable com- 

 paratively short rotations for all species and the greater 

 utilization of quick-growing and so-called inferior species 

 now discredited with the trade and of low commercial 

 value. It would, therefore, transform many now un- 

 attractive forest projects from unprofitable to profitable 

 investments and stimulate the practice of private forestry 

 in all parts of the country. 



The utilization of young forests naturally raises many 

 questions relative to seasoning, durability, mechanical 

 properties, etc. One is apt to think that it will intensify 

 drying difficulties on account of the increase in percent- 



