Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-01-09
CHANGE IN wNEERlNe.
A Machine That Makes Straight Grain
Appear yariegatsd.


Appear yariegated.
\ recent product OF inventive talent
is working q big change in the manu-
faf ture Of veneering. The manufact-
me cf veneering is pretty big busi-
ness in this part of the world, too, for
there are twenty-three factories in
New York aud Brooklyn, and a 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, and most beautifully figured
from end TO end. The object in max
ing veneering, of course, is to give a
piece Of furniture or 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
variegated the grain Of n log is. the
more it twists and curls and run hithel
and yon. the more valuable il is for
yeneering. 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 vcnoering-is limited. The
agents of the veneer making firms
have penetrated even The l,ast acces-
sible forests of the country in search
of suitable timber, and the competi-
ton for trees of twist grain has
brought the price up so Eigh as to
make profits unreasonably low. Trees
have been known 10 bring as high as
$500 each, though il 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. a 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 as much as il 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
diameter above seven inches, exclu.
sive Of sap, had its bark Clipped off
with an adze, and was then steamed
over night in tank made for the pur-
pose. In the morning il was ready to
be fastened into big lathe and knife
blade as long as the longest log used
seven feet-was kept pressed against
the log SO as to cut off a shaving or
ribbon about ne-thirtieth of an inch
thick as the log revolved toward it.
Two men rolled up the ribbon and car
ried il away as il 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 ap-
pearance; even bad 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 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 a 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 log. Certainly the ribbon
would have two kinds of grain and
two kinds of color. To get the ribbon
the inventor made a knife with a
wavy edge The waves were quarter
Of an inch high. However, this did
not produce a sufficient variety in the
grain of the ribbon 10 suit the in
ventor, and lie added ~ il by giving
The knife an oscillating movement in
the direction Of the length of the log
by cam Of half inch stroke. Now,
as the log rcvolved against the knife q
ribbon was cut which contained con-
tinuous waves that zigzagged up and
down in the direction Of the length Of
the log, and exposed q grain not only
varieglited in color by the varying
depths 10 which the knife cut, but
which was at the same time very
wavy, IL not curly in appearance. The
variations in the color even Of plain
black walnut log were remarkable and
beautiful
There was one objection to the We.
neering, and that was II did not lie
down Hat on Che surface to which !,
Nes 70 be glued This Mas remedied.