, 1888-11-28
A CHANGE IN YENeERINa.
A Machine Tint Makes n Straight Gruin
Appear Variegated.

A recent product of inventive talent
is working a big change in the manu-
facture of ~veneering. The manufact-
ure of ~veneering is a pretty big bust
ness in this part of the world, too, for
there are twenty-three factories in
New York and Brooklyn, and q stack
of logs big enough to blockade Broad
way three deep or more is shaved up
every day into ribbons hat are some
times seven feet wide and a thousand
long, and most beautifully figured
from end to end. The object in max
ing v~eneering, of course, is to give a
piece of furniture or a hallway or a
panel the beauty of expensive woods
with variegated grain without the cost
of using the expensive wood for the
entire article. The more wavy and
v~ariegated the grain of a log is, the
more it 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-
sible forests of the country in search
of suitable timber, and the COMPETE
ton for trees of a twist grain has
brought the price up SO high ms to
mako 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
have been camping out in all sorts of
uncomfortable wildernesses looking
for fancy timber, u few men have
been trying to devise plans by which
fancy grained ~vensering 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 q
log of plain grain sell for just four
and n half times as much as II did, say
u year ago.
70 understand the new process one
must first know what the old one was.
That was simple enough. A log seven
feet long or less and of almost any
diameter above seven inches, exclu-
sive of sap, had its bark Clipped off
with an adze, and was then steamed
over night in n tank made for the pur-
pose. In the morning it vas ready to
~ ieAoAILltNl ~ u zig liAl4lt anu u KILL
blade "a long as the longest log used
sever foet-was kept pressed against
tho log SO as to cut off IA shaving or
ribbon about one-thirtieth of an inch
thick as tho 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 tho wood
would not all be cut up, and so if the
grain of tho wood were straight, the
ribbon could not have a variegated APP
~pcarancc; even had the long, straight
tGnfe cut the grain at an angle the
product would have had no value over
the plain grain, but it was in consid-
erIng the possibilities of cutting at an
angle that the new process was hit
upon.
The inventor noticed that the growth
of no two different years in n tree had
exactly the same color and grain, even
when the log was perfectly straight
grained.
Suppose a knife were made that
would strip off a ribbon that dipped in
and out through the growth of say two
years on a log. Certainly the ribbon
would have two kinds Of grain and
two kinds of color. To get the ribbon
tho inventor made u knife with a
wavy edge. The waves were a quarter
of am inch high. However, this did
not produce n sufficient variety in the
grain of the ribbon to suit the in
ventor, and he added to it by giving
the knife an oscillating movement in
the direction of tho length of the log
by a cam of q half inch stroke. Now,
as the log revolved against the knife a
VHlhNW, -, ..-A It'll --Is
tinuous waves that zigzagged up and
down n the direction of the length of
the log, and exposed a grain not only
variegated in color by the varying
depths to which the knife cut, but
which was at the same time very
wavy, if not curly in appearance. The
variations In the color oven of a plain
black walnut log were remarkable and
beautiful.
There was one objection to the We
neering, and that was it did not lie
down flat ON the surface to which it
was to be glued. This was remedied,
however, by stacking up the ribbon in
q hydraulic press that squeezed it with
a pressure of forty tons to the square
inch. 1t came out of that press fiat.
AT present three kinds OF knives are
used in these machines. There is no
telling what new forms of knives
will be invented. The machine itself
is but little more expensive than the
old style, but q knife costs several
times rs much. Besides, when a knife
gets dull, n man has to labor over it
with emery wheels for just a month to
get it in order again.-New York Sun.
The Oath of nippocrates.