Morris tribune., 1897-06-02
WOODS USED IN FURNITURE.
Points About Mahogany Timber Formerly
Neglected but Employed Now.

!
Points About Mahogany Timber Formerly
Neglected but Employed Now.
Experts in old furniture are much
guided in their Judgment as to par
ticular pieces by the wood of which
they are made. Mahogany furniture,
purporting to be as much as two
centuries old, is subject to suspi-
cion, because mahogany was little
used in furniture until about the
middle of the eighteenth century.
A colonial New England piece is
much more likely to be of oak than
of mahogany, unless it belong to the
late colonial period. Mahogany was
a luxury even then, and oak was
used in ordinary households as be-
ing at once moderate in price and
durable.
1t is easy to tell whether pro-
fessed European piece of walnut fur
niture is genuine, by the quality of
the walnut. European walnut is a
denser and finer wood than most of
our walnut A piece of furniture
made of ash at unexposed points
is almost certain to be of American
manufacture, but piece having
beech at such points is likely to be
of European manufacture. Beech
is plentiful in Europe and relatively
scarce in this country, and with
American makers of furniture ash
is a cheap substitute for beech and
oak. A chair made entirely of beech
is almost certain to be of European
manufacture. Such chairs are often
beautiful in form and extremely
durable. Modern taste demands.
however, that the beech be stained
to initiate mahogany.
New woods have come into use of
late years. partly because timber of
the sort long used in furniture max
ing has become scarce, partly be-
cause modern machinery makes it
possible to work woods that in ear
lier times could not be proftably
worked. Birch, which is tough,
crooked and difficult to work, is
coming into use for factory made
furniture. This wood warps easily,
but it looks we'll and serves the
needs of the factory makers. Aspen
also is coming into use for the man
ufacture of furniture, though it,
too, is grabbed wood, unfit to be
worked save by modern cutting
machinery. Another of the woods
that the furniture makers have been
driven to use is sycamore. 1t is fair
ly abundant and cheapin the United
States, and its markings are dis
tinctiNe and beautiful, but it is I'M
trustworthy because of its tendency
to warp. 1t is sometimes used as a
veneer over less beautiful but more
trustworthy wood. Some of the
North river ferryboats are veneered
with sycamore All of these ,trou-
blesome woods have been improved
for use in furniture by modern
methods of rapid seasoning.
Birch, sycamore and the other
grabbed woods are not used by the
cabinet makers because their furni-
ture is hand made, and the labor and
expense Of working these woods
without the aid of machinery make
them Improbable for, cabinet made
furniture. Mahogany is much softer
and more easily worked than these
woods. Some New England folks
before the middle Of the presentcen ]
fury had a craze for furniture made
of ironwood, otherwise known as
hornbeam, and cabinet made furni-
ture of this material is found now.
and then in Connecticut The wood
is regarded by modern wood work
ers as utterly unfit for working into
furniture. New York cabinet max
ers avoid the use of beech, and it is
used in this country mainly for fine
tool handles, in planes and the like,
just as lignum vitae is in furniture
casters, blocks for pulleys and other
small articles.
Very old furniture in cherry is al
most as highly priced as mahogany,
and fine old pieces in maple fetch
high prices. The best walnut furni-
ture Of good old pattern is also high
" priced by the cabinet makers, as
walnut has become a very scarce
wood in this country.--New York
Sun.
Nothing Like Reality.