The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-11-17
A CHANGE IN VENtERING.
A Machine That Makes Straight Grain
appear Variecated.

is working a big change i'm the manu-
facturc cf vcnocring The manufact.
urc Of vcneering is a pretty big bust
ness Ia this part Of the world, too, for
there are twcnty-threc factories in
New York and Brooklyn. and stack
of logs big enough to blockade Broad
way three deep or more is shaved up
every day into ribbons that are some
times seven feet wide and thousand
long, end most beautifully figured
from end to end. The object in max
ing vonecring, Of course, is to give a
piece Of furniture or hallway or C
panel the beauty of expensive woods
with variegated grain without the cost
Of using the expensive wood for the
entire article The more wayy and
variegated the grain of n log is the
more j. twists and curls and run hither
and yon, the more valuable it is for
veneering. For this reason no end of
stumps have been cut up into ribbons,
not to mention knots and burls
However, the supply of logs with
an intricate grain and even of good
stumps-for not every stump can be
used for veneering-is limited. The
agents of the veneer making firms
have penetrated even the least acces-
siblc forests of the country in search
of suitable timber, and the competi
ton 70: trees of "a twist grain has
brought the price up so high as to
make profits unreasonably low. Trees
have been known TO bring as high as
$500 each, though it makes the veneer
man groan To- pay half that sum.
Meantime, while the buying agents
havc been camping out in ell sorts of
uncomfortable wllderncsSes looking
for fancy timber q few men have
been trying to devise plans BY which |
fancy grained veneering can be made |
from plain grained wood. They do |
not think they have obtained perfec-
ton yet in the matter What they |
have done is to make the product of a !
log Of plain grain sell for just four
and half times Us much as it did, say
a year ago.
TO understand the new process one
must first know what the old one was.
That was simple enough. 4 log seven
feet long or less and of almost any
diameter above seven inches. exclu-
sivc of sap, had it, bark Clipped off
with an adze, and was then steamed
over night i'll a tank made for the pur-
pose. In the morning it was ready to
be fastened into big lathe and a knife
blade as long AZ the longest log used
seven feet-was kept pressed against
the log 50 as 10 cut off "a shaving or
ribbon about onc-thrtieth of an inch
thick as the log revolved toward it,
Two men rolled up the ribbon and car
RED 1t away as it was turned out. Of
course the knife had to be set parallel
with the axis of the log or the wood
would not all be cut up, and so if the
grain Of the wood were straight. the
ribbon could not have variegated APP
pemancc; even had the long. straight
knife cut the grain at an angle the
product would have had no value over
the plain gram, but it was I'm cOnsid-
cring the possibilities OF cutting at an
angie that the new process was Lit ,
upon. ,
The inventor noticed that the growth
Of 40 two different years in q tree had !
exactly the same color and grain. even I
when the log was perfectly straight
grained s
Suppose knife were made that !
would strip off ribbon that dipped in s
md ont through the growth Of say two
years on log Certainly the ribbon
would have two kinds of grain and :
NO kinds of color. To get the ribbon :
he inventor made n knife with q ,
yavy edge. The waves were q quarter
f an inch high However, this did G
not produce a sufficient variety ia the .
grain of the ribbon TO suit the IN q
-entor. and he added to it by giving b
he knife an oscillatlng movement in Z
hc direction of tic length of the log j.
~ a cam Of half inch stroke. Now. l'
is the log revOlved against the knife q J.
ibbon was cut which contained con- l.
inuous waves that zigzaggcd zap and
lOWu IN the direction Of the length Of =
b. log. and exposed grain not only
in color by the varying
.epths 10 which the knife cat, bat
Which was At the same time very CO
'aVN, II not curly IN appearance. Inc
in the color even OF plain q
lack walnut log were remarkable and n
eautiful u
There was one objection to the We h
.eering. and that was it did lot lie 80
own fiat on the surface TO which it
ras 10 be glued This was remcdied, u
owever, by stacking up the ribbon in -
hydraulic press that squeezed j, with ~
pressure Of forty tons TO the square M
loh 1t came out of that press fiat. n,
1t present three kinds of knives are II,
sc( in these machines. There Is no if
fling what new forms OF knives
ill be invented. The machine itself NJ
5 but little more expensive than the III
Id style. but IA knife costs several 81
mes as much. Besides. when a knife ~
cts dull. man has TO labor over it u
nth emery wheels for just month to "
ct II IN order again.-Ncw York sun. ~
The Oath Of llippOcrates. ~
\ correspondent sends Us the Hippo p
ratio oath. apropOs Of recent structures