The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-12-27
FANCY vENEERs FROM PLAIN WOOD.
A New-fangled Machine that Makes a
Straight Grain Appear Variegated.

A Hew-fangled Machine that Makes a
Straight Grain Appear Variegated.
A recent product of inventive talent
is working II big change in the manu-
facture of veneering. The manufac-
ture of veneering is a pretty big busi-
ness in this part of the world, too, for
there are twenty-three factories in New
York and Brooklyn. and Il stack of
logs big enough to blockade Broadway
three deep or more is shaved up every
day into ribbons that are sometimes
seven feet wide and thousand long,
and most beautifully figured from end
to end. The object in making veneer
ing, of course, is to give piece of
furniture or 4 hallway or panel the
beauty of expensive woods with varie-
gated grain without the cost of using
the expensive wood for the entire arti-
Gle. The more wavy and variegated
the grain of log is. the more it twists
and curls and runs 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 pene-
trated even the least accessible forests
of the country in search of suitable
timber, and the competition for trees
of twist grain has brought the price
up so high rs to make profits unreas-
ably 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, 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 perfection yet
in the matter. What they have done is
to make the product of IL log of plain
grain sell for just four and a half
times as 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. A log seven
feet long or less and of almost any di-
ameter above seven inches. exclusive
of sap, had its bark Clipped off with
an adze, and was then steamed over
night in a tank made for the purpose.
In the morning it was ready to be fas-
tened into big lathe and knife blade
as long us the longest log used-sevcn
feet-was kept pressed against the log
so as to cut off Il shaving or ribbon
about one-thirteenth of an inch thick
as the log revolved toward it. Two
men rolled up the ribbon and carried
it 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 SD if the grain of
the wood were straight, the ribbon
could not have varIegated appear
ance; even had the long, straight knife
cut the grain at an angle the product
would have had no value over the plain
grain, but it was in considering 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 Il tree had
exactly the same color, even when
the log was perfectly straight grained.
Suppose knife were made that
would strip off ribbon that dipped in
and out through the growth of say two
years on log. Certainly the ribbon
would have two kinds of grain and
two kinds of color. TO get the ribbon
the inventor made IL knife with wavy
edge, thus:
The waves were Il quarter of an inch
high. However, this did not produce
a sufficient variety in the grain of the
ribbon to suit the inventor, and he
added to it by giving the knife an os-
cillating movement in the direction OF
the length of the log by cam of Il
half-inc. stroke. Now, as the log re-
volved against the knife ribbon was
cut which contained continuous waves
that Zigaaged up and down in the di-
rection of the length of the log, and
exposed Il grain not only yariegated in
color by the varying depths to which
the knife cut, but which was at the
same time very wavy. if not curly in
The variations in th,
color even of plain black walnut log
were remarkable and beautiful.
There was one objection TO this ven.
eering, 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 hy-
draulic press that squeezed it with n
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 knife costs several times as much.
Besides, when knife gets dull. man
has to labor over it with emery wheels
for just month to get it in order
again.
When a New York San reporter was
looking at one of the machines in East
Eighth street the other day it was cut
ting plain log. The superintendent
of the works said that the product
would bring $22.5O per 1000 square
feet against SIS per l 900 were straight
knife used. The corrugated knife, as
it is called, will improve the appear
ance of grain that is naturally varie-
gated to some extent, but when the
grain is found that is just right moth
ing is so good us the old-fashiOned,
straight-edged blade. If the grain is
there naturally walnut veneers bring
as high as $3.50, and even $500 per 200