58 THR PRINCIPAL USES OF WOOD. 



The mode of working is briefly as follows : — Billets or rotinds of 

 the required length being sawn off the logs, they are split with the 

 axe into quarters, and each quarter, if large enough, into sectors 

 (^Fig. 16). 



The divider with a wooden mallet now comes into requisition. 

 The sapwood and pith portion of each sector is removed, and the 

 sector is split tangentially into pieces of the width of the staves 

 to be made. These pieces are fixed on the bench as represented in 

 Fig. 15 and finally split up into staves. The divider being driven 

 into the wood, the slit is extended by pressing on the handle 

 and pushing the blade in further as the wood splits more and more. 

 To facilitate this process it may be necessarjr to use the mallet now 

 and then. The staves may be taken off by splitting the sections 

 radially or along the lines of the medullary rays as at (a) in Fig. 

 16 or along parallel lines as at (6) and (c). The faces of the staves 



Fig. 16 



Method of splitting wood for cask staves. 

 (After Boppe). 



obtained by the former method are made parallel with the shave ; 

 this method is hence a more wasteful one than the other. 



On the continent of Europe manual labour is sometimes replaced 

 by special machinery, -which turns out staves of much truer 

 shape and size. But the action of such machines is partly a split- 

 ting, partly a cutting one. 



In England the staves are cut -with circular saws, and, after 

 being shaved on one, the future inner, side, are steamed and press- 

 ■ ed to the required curvature. This practice obtains also at Bor- 

 deaux, being not only much easier than splitting, but affording 

 the advantage of utilizing seasoned wood. 



Wooden hoops are now seldom used. They are furnished by 

 poles and saplings, young stool-shoots being the best. If poles 

 are utilized, they are first trimmed straight and clean and then 

 split. The hoops are made by forming them on blocks of the re- 



