Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-18
Costly Cabinet Woods.
K .nots From Persian Tree in Sheets . . Thin as Tissue Paper.

From the New York Sum-
 'sThe demand for fine woods" said one of the members of we'll known Centre street firm. sis increasing every year. The finest and costliest is French walnut which, by the way, is not French at all but Is 8 product of Oriental countries. It grows in Persia, Cir cassla, and Asis Minor. You have seen it in veneering upon costly furniture, but you probably have no notion how expensive it is, nor how careful we are to-. prevent waste in it's use. Come into our werkrooms and will let you see it in process of cutting.'
 He led the way into srne extensive rooms,
 where ponderous machinery was revolving and heavy chains rsttling. In one room steam rose from cracks in the floor.
 Down there," said the gentleman, ftis 8
 pit where we lay large and valuable logs and subject them to tie action of steam until they become almost as soft as butter. Then
 we take them out, fasten them to an iron
 beam (here he led She way into another room,) ) and this b sam revolves around a fine ly tempered knife, of the same length as the log" -
 With each revolution strip of wood was shaved of smoothly, and laid in piles upon the floor like skins of leather or sheets of paper.
 Every lime this beam turns around it moves a fraction of an inch nearer to the knlfe The whole apparatus works with ex- treme 6Eeclsion. No printing press or weav- ing n .aehine is made with greater nicety. The knlf g that slaves off the sheets of wood is rip Idly immovable, and ground to razor- Il 6e edge. The heavy beam that revolves
 @ith it's great load of timber is firmness { itself, and is regulated like olockwork. The slightest tremor in the beam or knife would break and twist the shin sheets that you see l turned off here with the regularity and per. lection of newspapers turned out by the printing press. These sheets are about 1-120 ] of an inch in thickness, but frequently we shave of veneers as thin as 175 to the inch. He lifted corner of one of the long sheets and it seemed to be about the thickness of ordinary writing paper. The wood was warm and pliable.
 ''It is only in this condition that this shay ing is possible. When fresh from the steam pit the knife slips easily through it. Were
 the wood cold and hard, the process would
 be impossible. Even if the knife could do the work, the sheets would be too brittle,
 and would crumble into small fragments"
 "For what purpose are those extremely
 thin sheets used ?''
 ''The- veneers used upon furniture are, as
 8 rule, somewhat thicker than these that we
 are now turning off. The thinnest veneers are used on picture frames. They are as
 thin as the finest tissue paper, and must be
 backed with ordinary paper attached with
 paste to prevent the glue by which they are fastened to inc body of the frames from VGu6c0r0
 used to large extent in the same way that
 wall paper is used-forl covering the walls of rooms. Besides this, there are many other and novel uses to which they arc put. A short lime ago somebody conceived the idea of having business cards printed upon them, thinking that the novelty of the material would cause people to preserve the cards.n
 ''Do you ever saw logs into such sheets ?"
 Sometimes, but rarely, with the more expensive woods. Saving involves good deal of waste. For the cheaper woods it is sometimes more desirable, as it is not necessary to go through the steaming process when we use the saw, but there is & great difference in the number of sheets that are turned out in that way. The most that we can get by saving is twenty-five to the inch"
 'What is the value of French walnut ?''
 q have seen it sell as high as $2 pound, At the Paris Exposition for 1878 one burl was sold for $5, ,o00, and its weight did not exceed ?, 2e0 pounds.
 'What is 8 burl?''
 ''This is trade expression, and means the large and tough knotsor excresccnces like warts that grow upon the trunk of the tree. The French walnut is 8 small tree, crooked and dwarfed in it's growth, that grows, as I have stated, in Asiatic countries. Its value is confined entirely to these curious, tough, and contorted bumps that grow upon it. The trunk itself is of little or no value. You have often noticed the singular grain that French walnut has, if grain you can call it. The flores and tissues seem to be twisted in to the most singular and complicated figures. The intricacy of these figures, combined with their symmetry, is one of the clements that determines the value of the French walnut burl Color and soundness are other ele. xnents of value."
 t'Does the burI play the same important part in mahogany and other valuable woods | that it does in the French walnut"
 There are rosewood and mahogany burls, l but, unlike those of the French walnut, they l are of little or no value. In those woods 1t is the trunk of the tree that is prizad, the knots are discarded"
 How do other woods compare in value with the French walnut ?'
 Next to French walnut ebony is probably the next valuable. Occasionally fine piece is found that brings even better price than the French walnut. Not long ago saw some that was sold for $s5o ton For a particularly large piece, even $5 pound might be paid In ebony the main thing is size It is difficult to get large pieces that can be used without cutting. Rosewood and mahogany are always in demand. The best mahogany is that of San Domingo. Next come the mahoganies of Cuba, Honduras, | Mexico and Africa. There is much less diff | ference in value between different mahoga- l nyRand rose woods than between specimens of | ebony and French walnut Fair rosewood l will sell in the log for 51 and cents per | pound. French walnut can occasionally, if | poor, be bought as low as three cents per | pound, but the finer burls will sell for hun | dreds of dollars Burls worth from $500 to | $1 ,O00 each are not rare I recently bought | one myself for $1, 200, and think shall | make it pan out $3 ,00O. We must be very careful, however, in buying these burls. | Their value is often greatly lessened by the existence of hollows, sometimes in the very | kI,,,. oe These hollow places are fill ed up by fraudulent dealers with substance that is made to resemble the genuine wood, and they will then sell the burls as sound. Manure, compressed to the requisite degree of hardness, is much used for this purpose Worse even than this is the practice to which such knayes sometimes resort of placing stones in the hollows to increase the weight, for the burls as have already intimated, are sold by the pound. This fraud IS haoie to cause serious damage to the valuable knives that are used in cutting the veneers"
 '.HoW about our native WOODS Do you deal much in them?"
 ssYes. to some extent; but for choice cabi- net work the foreign woods are, of course, more highly prized. Buris in ash and maple are plentiful and cheap, selling for two to 'our cents a pound. Black walnut burls ! poupd-but they are getting scarce. Yes, he demand for choice cabinet woods is con- { tantly increasing. In the houses that the ,, wealthy are now putting up, the fine wood york constitutes large item in the expend- I ture Look at these veiesrs for table cov- : rs These handsome designs and this artis- ic ornamentation are all mosaic work. made T y piecing together small fragments of woods f different colors, or inserting them in the 'ody of the large sheet that constitutes the ackground. To one not acquainted with q his work it would look like drawing on rood but turn the sheet over and you see he lines run through. You can get these eneers for fine tables at almost any cost. t lou can get one as low as $25. and you can ave designs put together at es high 8 price < s you may care to pay.
 s.Are there many dealers in such woods in he United States ?s