COMMERCIAL USES OF SUGAR MAPLE 



1025 



BOOT AND SHOE FINDINGS 



Maple leads all other woods of the United States in 

 the industry which produces boot and shoe findings. 

 Lasts are the most important article of this industry, so 

 far as such are supplied by wood ; but some maple is con- 

 sumed in the production of shoe pegs and shanks, though 

 paper birch is ahead of maple in all except lasts. In the 

 manufacture of these, maple has no rival worthy of men- 

 tion. It is so much superior to them all that it stands 

 alone. A very hard, close-grained wood is demanded, and 

 the most exacting processes of seasoning are necessary 

 to fit it for the place it must fill. 



Last blocks, which are the rough billets, are partly 

 shaped without the use of the lathe. Choice, straight- 

 grained trunks are first cross-cut into bolts which are 

 usually long enough for three lasts. The bolts are split 

 into billets of proper size, and these are carefully air- 

 seasoned from one to three years. Because of the slow- 

 ness of the drying, few checks or cracks open in the 

 wood. If such do open, the rigid inspection rejects them, 

 for the smallest crack degrades or spoils a last. After 

 air-seasoning has been sufficient, the billets are subjected 

 to kiln heat for a considerable time. They are then cut 

 into lengths proper for one last each, arid are passed 

 through a lathe which produces the rough form only. 



The actual turning of the last is a careful and delicate 

 operation. An automatic lathe does it. The keen knives, 

 each revolving at very high speed, dig into and chip 

 away the wood, scooping out depressions here, and leaving 

 elevations there, until a last, which must be the exact 

 shape of the inside of a shoe, is produced. The knives 

 are guided by cams which slowly feel out the precise 

 form of a pattern affixed to the lathe as a guide. Every 

 change in style of shoes calls for new lasts and the old, 

 though they may still be perfectly serviceable from .1 

 mechanical standpoint, go to the scrap pile, victims of 

 changing fashions in footwear. For that reason, shoe 

 last factories must always keep ample supplies of rough 

 last blocks on hand ; but they must not manufacture 

 much ahead of the orders on file. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS 



The manufacturers of agricultural implements require 

 the enormous quantity of 321,000,000 feet of various 

 v.'oods annually. Some other species are in more demand 

 than maple, but it is near the head of the list and furnishes 

 15 per cent of the total. In almost every case it is se- 

 lected on account of its strength, hardness and stiffness. 

 It is pre-eminently a frame material when machines are 

 of considerable size; but it has a place also as pitmans, 

 guides, levers, braces and axles. Its largest use is found 

 in threshers, reapers, fertilizer spreaders, grain drills, 

 wind-stackers, land rollers, fanning mills and similar 

 machines. When maple is employed as slides in appara- 

 tus with rapid oscillating motions, the wood wears to the 

 smoothness of polished steel and friction is reduced to a 

 minimum. 



Maple is much used for hoppers, chutes, drawers and 

 boxes which are essential parts of certain classes of 

 agricultural implements ; but when so used it possesses 



no advantage over yellow poplar and cottonwood, since 

 great strength is not demanded. 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 



Few persons who have not looked into statistics of 

 the uses of woods in the country's industries would place 

 maple as the leading one in the manufacture of musical 

 instruments in the United States, yet such it is. A large 

 number of woods, both foreign and domestic, have places 

 in that industry. It calls for materials of the highest 

 class. The annual demand exceeds 260,000,000 feet, and 

 18 per cent of it is maple. 



It may be used for practically every part of a piano 

 that can be made of wood, except the sounding board, 

 which is always spruce ; but maple's most important place 

 in piano making is in the actions. It is so peculiarly fitted 

 for the requirements of that mechanism that it monopo- 



Courtesy the Manual Arts Press. 



SUGAR MAPLE BOARDS 



Tangential or bastard cut, the 

 most common method of 

 sawing. 



Radial or quartersawed section, 

 showing pith rays, which appear 

 in cut as light necks or streaks. 



lizes it in many factories. Again it is maple's hardness, 

 stiffness and strength that lead to the preference shown 

 it ; but its fitness for piano actions is due likewise to 

 what is known as "standing qualities." That term means, 

 when applied to a wood, that it will hold its form in 

 climatic changes, neither warping, shrinking nor swell- 

 ing. Maple is not surpassed in that quality, at least 

 not among commercial American woods. 



Some of the choicest figured maple finds its use as 

 piano cases, and as the boxes or cases of phonographs 

 and the bodies of costly harps ; while the very finest of 

 all, though in small quantities, is found in the sides of 

 violins. The artist who exercises his skill in the making 



