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long, and i inch thick. Not frequently the pencil makers manufacture 



their own slats, but there are concerns specializing in cedar products who 

 convert their best material into pencil slats and the remainder into lumber 

 for utility boxes, furniture squares, and closet linings. Formerly when 

 cedar was abundant pencil slats were manufactured entirely from logs, but 

 rapidly decreasing supply of cedar timber has brought into the market old 

 stumps, fence rails, gate posts, barn and cabin logs, and material in various 

 shapes and condition, even partly decayed and weather checked. As can 

 be expected, therefore, waste incident to the sawing of pencil slats is large 

 and has been estimated to be about four-fifths of the original amount pur- 

 chased. A pencil slat makes six half-pencils. The same operation that grooves 

 them to accommodate the lead also gives them their final form and the 

 corresponding halves are identically made from another slat and glued to- 

 gether. 



Carpenters' tools belong to this industry. They include commodities made 

 almost entirely of wood such as spirit levels, rules, gauges, mallet heads, 

 level boards, etc. Tools part wood and part metal like screwdrivers, chisels, 

 gimlets, etc., have been grouped under the handle industry. White oak 

 alone met the demand for gauges which require a hard dense light colored 

 wood and from the price given only the best grades were used. In other 

 States boxwood and sugar maple were also used but neither kind was re- 

 ported in Pennsylvania. White ash and mahogany, because most stable 

 when in place, answered for spirit levels and plumbs. In Connecticut and 

 New Jersey, where a quantity of these commodities are made, cherry is an 

 important wood and large quantities are used. Level boards were entirely 

 of white pine, while for mallets a variety of woods is used. For carpenters' 

 and tinners' mallets sugar maple answered while lignum-vitae, shipped from 

 Mexico, and dogwood served for bung starters and coppersmiths' mallets. 

 Heads of mauls used by sheet metal workers are made of black or sour gum 

 and it is interesting to note that recently this wood has begun to replace 

 sugar maple for this use. Its interlaced fiber, which prevents it from split- 

 ting, commends it, besides it is cheap and owing to the large dimensions 

 the trees attain the bolts can readily be had in desired sizes. 



In Pennsylvania, as in other states, boxwood is the principal rule ma- 

 terial, both for mechanics' collapsible rules and office rulers. It is shipped 

 to this country usually from Turkey or other Mediterranean countries, and 

 owing to its hardness, light color, and stability, it is preferred to any other 

 wood for this commodity. The same qualities commend it to the makers of 

 draftsmen's scales, such as straight-edges, triangles, graduated and slide 

 rules. 



Camera makers report using three woods, — mahogany, cherry, and yellow 

 poplar. The first two are the important ones, being strong, close-grained, 

 and free from warping tendencies as well as ornamental. Yellow poplar is 

 used in only relatively small amounts in this line of work and when so de- 

 manded goes principally into kits. Ebony was the highest priced wood shown 

 in the table and was reported by the makers of drafting instruments. 



