30 BULLETIN 1436, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
on a lathe to the desired rough-finished diameter. These green 
rough-finished heads require careful handling in order to minimize 
checking and splitting. They are piled loosely on the floor in 
open sheds, all of one size together, and covered with burlap sacks 
to prevent too rapid loss of moisture. The burlap sacks are removed 
about once a week, according to weather conditions, and the blanks 
are turned over by means of a shovel so that the drying-out process 
may be more even. The burlap sacks are then replaced. The 
process is continued for two or three months until the danger from 
severe checking has passed. The blanks are then shipped in bags 
to spool and bobbin manufacturers. 
Spool and bobbin heads manufactured in the rough are V/ 2 to 4 
inches in diameter, and one-half inch to 1^4 inches thick. The aver- 
age price is $6 to $8 per thousand pieces. 
In the bobbin and spool industry there is at present a tendency to 
substitute fiber for wooden heads. Fiber is very satisfactory for 
heads and may ultimately replace a large part of the many kinds of 
wood now so employed. Dogwood for heads will, however, continue 
to be employed for some time. 
PULLEYS 
Small pulleys (fig. 19) made of dogwood are strong and light 
and are very serviceable in the textile industry. The blanks from 
which they are shaped are cut in about the same manner as the heads 
for spools and bobbins, and the pulleys are finished, dressed, and 
sanded on lathes. Only a small quantity of dogwood is used for 
pulleys. 
SKEWERS 
A skewer is a bobbin spindle the blunt end of which is fixed to the 
horizontal member of a creel or frame on a spinning machine. The 
smalls tips of skewers, approximately only one-fiftieth of the volume 
of the whole skewer, are often made of dogwood. Tips of dogwood 
resist wear so much better than beech, birch, and maple, of which 
the body of the skewer may be made, that they find a very important 
use, although only a very small quantity of wood is employed. 
MALLET HEADS 
Dogwood, because it resists continual pounding and hammering 
without chipping, breaking, denting, brooming, and splitting to the 
same degree as other woods, is used for the better grades of tin- 
smith mallet heads (fig. 19). The uniform fineness of dogwood and 
its pink and brown coloring make it very attractive for this purpose. 
Mallet heads are turned on a lathe from rough dogwood bolts with 
the bark on. When turned on the lathe the bolts should be as dry 
as the mallet would eventually become in ordinary use. It is, of 
course, more difficult to turn rough dogwood bolts when dry than 
when green, but if the bolt is turned when green there is always 
considerable loss through checking of the mallet head itself in 
drying. The center or pith need not be eliminated in bolts used for 
mallet heads. As a matter of fact, it would be an extremely difficult 
task to saw the head of a tinner's mallet out of the sapwood alone 
