St. Landry democrat., 1890-03-22
The Making of Veneers.
A NEW INvFNTIOs FOR ADDING TO TH
BEAUTY OF THE PRODUCT.

A NEW INvFNTIos FOR ADDING TO THE
BEAUTY OF THE PRODUCT.
For long time manufacturers Of ve-
neers have been trying to secure fancy
grain for straight-grained wood. OF
course, the more wavy and intricate the
grain is, the more valuable is the veneer.
A method has at last besn secured for pro-
ducing fancy veneers from plain wood.
To understand the new process one must
first know what the old one was. 1t was
simple enough. A log seven foot long or
less and of almost any diameter above
seven inches had it's bark clipped off and
was then steamed over night in tank
made for the purpose In the morning it
was ready to be fastened to the big lathe,
and knife blade as long IS the Longest
log used-seven feet-was kept pressed
against the wood SO as to cut off shaving
or ribbon about one-thirtieth 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 SO, if the grain of the wood
were straight, the ribbon could not have
variegated appearance, even had the long,
straight knife cut the grain at an angle.
The inventor of the new process 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. So if knife were made
that would strip off ribbon that dipped
in and out through the growth of say two
years, the ribbon would have two kinds or
gram. To get the ribbon, the inventor
made knife with wavy edge. The
waves were quarter of an inch high.
However this did not produce sufficient
variety in the grain OF the ribbon to suit
the inventor, and he added to it by giving
the knife an oscillating movement in the
direction of the length of the log, by q
cam of half inch stroke. Now, if the
log revolved against the knife, ribbon
was cut which contained waves that zig
Jagged up and down, and exp osed grain
not only variegated in color oy the vary
ing depths to which the knife had cut,
but which was, at the same time very
wavy, if not curly, in appearance. TIL.
variegations in the color even OF plain
black walnut log, were remarkable and
beautiful.
There was one objection to this remain
ing, and that was it did not lie down fla
on the surface to which it was glued.
This was remedisd however, by stacking
up the ribbon in hydraulic press that
squeezed it with pressure of forty tons to
the square inch. 1t came out of that press
fat.
At present three kinds of knives are
used in these machines. There is no tell
ing what new forms of knives will be in
vented. The machine itself is but little
more expensive than the old style, but a
knife costs several times as much. Be-
sides when knife gets dull, man has to
labor over it for a month with emery
wheels to get it in order again.
When reporter was looking at one of
the machines in East Eighth street the
other day it was cutting plain log. The
superintendent of the works said that the
product would bring $22 so per 100 square
feet, against So per 1000 feet. were a
straight knife used. The corrugated
knife, as it is called, will improve the ap-
pearance of grain that is naturally vari-
egated to some extent. but when the grain
is found that is just right, nothing is SO
good as the old-fashioned straight-edged
blade. -Neso York Times.