Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-25
Saks and Company.
RARE AND COSTLY WOOD
Varieties That Bring Enormous Prices in
the Market.
Only Few Are known to Commerce
Too Expensive to Use Except
for VeneerinE.

Lying in some of the great lumber yards
situated on the East river in New York one
may see vast heaps of rare woods that are
valued at millions of dollars. Most of the
timber IS carefully stacked up in compact
squares ard Is either exposed to the
weather or protected by rough sheds. The
woods representative of variety of
trees native of countries of the equator and
American forests.
1T Is the veining and nothing of a log
and the veneers that can be made from 1t
that fixes the value of fine wood said
large New York dealer to a Star reporter
recently. While all these special woods of
commerce costly. prices three and four
times the average are paid for unusual pat
terms of rosewood, mahogany and black
walnut.
There are several hundred varieties of
fine woods brought each year into New
York. but of these only a few are known to
commerce TO any extent Mahogany, French
burl, rosewood. curly ash, American quar-
tered oak, figured birch. black walnut, Cir
cassian walnut and satinwood are the fancy
timber varieties that sell the best, their
prices ranging from :; to 10 cents a foot for
yeneers.
These figures WILL however. give no ade-
quate idea of the values until they are ex-
amined carefully. But the calculation is a
simple one. A veneer Is thin strip cut
from a board by a shaving machine, thirty
veneers being allowed to each board of an
inch in thickness, the boards of these costly
woods running about two feet In width.
AS rule these boards are eight to ten feet
long, and thus single veneer of mahogany
two feet wide and ten in length is worth
from ~ cents TO 81. A double row of these
veneers piled up five feet high Is worth
easily 5000.
Veneers of Mahogany.
In the log mahogany sells at dollar
10 a dollar and a half foot, board meas
urement. II comes from Mexico and Cuba
and is brought to New York in logs. 1t is
sold principally in veneers. These veneers
even when stacked up in piles in sheds,
soon become so brittle that the only
OF shipping them TO the furniture and
piano manufacturers is TO pack them in
cases. a case usually holds five hundred
Sheets or from $500 to $500 worth, and is
so heavy that the united strength of six
u.en with rollers is necessary to get II upon
a truck. A case is known in the trade as
= Hitch
Even u1varnished and unpublished as
these woods in the rough. the
patterns are easily visible. and the designs
Nearly ys ali ess woSs ss Are se in
for two reasons: First, they are too costly
10 use solldly. ard. second, they all have
a tendency TO warp. Next in popularity
10 mahogany comes American figured wal
nut from Kentucky. West Virginia, Ten
nessee and the western part of North Car
Gina The finest logs of this timber are
TO be found on the slopes of the Blue Ridge
and Cumberland mountains.
- -
Selecting Walnut.
go important is 1t to get woods of fine
patterns that the leading walnut dealers
Inspect the trees themselves before they
are cut down. They employ experienced
woodsmen, at large salaries, TO search over
the whole region where the best walnut
trees are for months at q time, and then.
the finest trees having been marked. the
dealer or his trusted representative leaves
the city and travels through the woods on
horseback selecting the most valuable