60 



THB PRINCIPAL USES OF WOOD. 



4. Drums, sieve-frames and hand-boxes. 



The Indian double-headed drum is made out of a whole piece of 

 ■wood hollowed out ; but the sinjjle-headed drum is, like the frames 

 of sieves, made of a single band of split wood. One of the best woods 

 for drums is the Pterocarpus Marsupium, which is remarkably son- 

 orous ; but any straight, even, and sufficiently close-grained wood 

 will be suitable. For sieve-frames the choice is less restricted, 

 and a soft wood, provided it is tough enough, will answer. The 

 bottoms of coarse sieve's are often made of woven strips of bamboo. 



Band-boxes can be made only of woods that split well and can be 

 easily bent into shape. The wood may be split into sheets as thin 

 as the wood in match-boxes, or into boards nearly half an incn 

 thick. The best woods for the purpose are conifers, on account of 

 their long fibre and simple uniform structure. 



Under this head we may include the wood used in the sheaths 

 of swords, knives and daggers. Simal is largely used for the pur- 

 pose when coniferous wood is not obtainable. 



The boards and thin sheets required for the purposes treated 

 under this head are most easily split with special machines, a most 

 efPective pattern of which will be found briefly described under the 

 next head. 



5. Veneers and thin sheets of wood for various purposes. 



For veneers only ornamental woods that are also close-grained, 

 tough and elastic can be used. They are often sawn with thin 

 band saws, but they are best obtained by a process analogous to 

 splitting. The Flessis machine is one of the most convenient and 

 effective for this purpose (see Fig. 17). It consists essentially of 



Fig. 17. 



Plessis machiiie for cutting out thin sheets of wood 



(After Boppe). 

 (a,). Placing iron. (I). Heel to prevent sUet of 

 wood from breaking or splitting off irregularly. 



