Solid Wood Products 2653 



admit occasional pin knots, burls, gum spots, and slight mineral 

 streaks. Sweetgum, tupelo sp., and yellow-poplar are used as well as 

 ash sp. and oak sp. 



• Furniture veneer 



Logs should be at least 15 inches in diameter, 6 feet long, with at least 

 three-fourths of the surface clear. Species used are the same as for 

 prefinished panels. 



• Finn-ply (thick plywood with one clear face, made from many thin plys) 



Logs should be about 1 1 inches in diameter, 4 feet long, and can admit 

 knots to l-Vi inches in diameter, burls, stain, and bird peck, but should 

 be 20 percent clear. Species could include hickory in addition to the 

 species used for prefinished panelling. 



Few pine-site hardwood logs have the diameter, length, and quality required 

 for architectural face veneers. Some can meet requirements for prefinished 

 panels — particularly those given a rustic finish. Because log lengths for furniture 

 veneer are less — 6 feet, or even 4 feet — a significant supply of furniture veneer 

 bolts can be cut from pine-site hardwoods; moreover, as technology is devel- 

 oped (see figs. 18-251 and 252 and sec. 28-31) to peel logs 9 to 1 1 inches in 

 diameter, it is likely that the pine-site oaks can furnish significant amounts of 

 rotary-peeled furniture veneer for 4-foot panels. (See section 28-23 for an 

 economic feasibility study of manufacturing southern hardwood, platen-pressed 

 flakeboard cores for decorative hardwood plywood.) 



Technology developed by plywood manufacturers in Finland may also be 

 suitable for some pine-site hardwoods. Finn-ply is made in thicknesses up to and 

 exceeding 1 inch from thin veneer cut from logs about 4 feet log and as small as 9 

 inches in diameter. Through use of retractable chucks, core diameters are only 2- 

 Vi inches. In a 1 -inch-thick panel, only one sheet (the face) in 16 needs to be 

 clear if veneer thickness is 1/16-inch. The round-up and rotary-peeling layout 

 illustrated in figure 18-252 and sec. 18-31 is appropriate for such an operation. 

 In the Finnish system, 4-foot-long veneers are scarf-jointed to yield veneers of 

 desired length. 



In addition to very high speed round-up machines equipped with scanners and 

 accurate centering devices, and lathes equipped with retractable chucks and 

 back-up rolls, manufacturing plants equipped to make Finn-ply or small furni- 

 ture panels will likely be equipped for continuous feeding of veneer to veneer 

 dryers, electronic sensing and clipping of defects, crossfeed veneer splicing, and 

 automated glue spreading, panel assembling, pressing, unloading, trimming, 

 and sanding. 



Another veneer product that might have promise for pine-site hardwoods is 

 thin (1/10-inch), narrow (3-7/16-inch), short (2, 3, and 4-foot) clear strips of 

 rotary-peeled veneer dried and packaged in quantities adequate to cover a 32- 

 square-foot area — the same as a 4- by 8-foot panel. This veneer, which is thin 

 enough to cut with shears, is sold to consumers for home craft decorative 

 purposes such as wall panelling glued in place to form mosaic or herringbone 

 patterns. Species that appear suitable are white oak, ash, and perhaps sweetgum 

 which can yield interesting color variations between heart and sapwood. A West 



