Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-08-17
VENEER INDUSTRY GROWS
CENSUS FIGURES SHOW OUTPUT OF
1905 DOUBLE THAT OF
1905.
TWO BILLION FEET PRODUCED.
Scarcity of Lumber and New Uses for
Veneer Cause Great De-
mand

A census report recently issued by the
government on the manufacture of wood
veneers in the United States brings out
the significant fact that the output was
almost double last year. 1t rose from
one billion square feet produced in 1905
to nearly two billion in 1906
In one form or another veneer is al
most as old as civilization, but it's ex
tensive use is very recent. In 1905 the
Forest Service issued the first official re-
port concerning it in this country. This
year the bureau of the census, coop
Grating with the Forest Service, pub
lished the second report, coming down
to December 81, 1906.
Veneer of Superior Quality.
Most people probably think of veneer
ing as a process by which a cheap arti-
Gle is made to look like an expensive
one. A common figure of speech con-
trasts thin veneer, as of good man
ners, civilization, ETC., with the solid,
real thing In point of fact an article
made of veneer is often superior to and
more expensive than one made solid. A
veneered door is the proper article for
use in we'll built house, because a
solid door is more likely to warp.
The main impetus to the use OF We
HeeF, however, Is lHe ueCeSSIly IOE SSOlO
MIXING in the use of material forces by
the growing scarcity and rising prices
of wood in this country. Naturally the
pinch was felt first in the woods most
generally used and most highly priced
for finishing woods, furniture, and SIM
liar uses-black walnut, white oak, yell
low paper Tor 'whitewood' as the con-
sumner generally knows it,, etc. In the
case of white oak, for example, so much
in demand for many purposes. ana so
rapidly failing, the recent extensive use
of veneering processes has in some high
degree checked the rise in price of quar-
tered sound material. Obviously It has
acted to make the limited supply go
much further than it would otherwise
In many kinds of manufacture veneerlng
affords a means of ecOnomiZing wood
not by OVERLAPPING one kind of wood with
another but by using Il much thinner
piece of wood and by securing close
utilization of all material with as little
waste as possible.
Forms Distinct Industry.
Its manufacture forms a distinct indus
try, and n very important and wide
spread one. The 300 or more mills max
ing veneer are scattered through two
thirds of the states. Some states, how
ever, have many more mills than others,
just as some produce more lumber than
to assume that sections producing much
lumber necessarily rank high in their
veneer output. The Pacific coast makes
little, although it cuts vast quantities
of other lumber. Yellow pine is second
in the list of veneer material, but other
pines are scarcely used at all. Door
makers employ yellow pine in large
quantities. The beautiful grained Geor-
gia pine doors which are seen in 50
many homes are often pine veneer laid
on some other wood.
Veneers makers use almost any wood
that comes to their hands, but red gum
heads the list, followed in the order
named by yellow pine, white oak, maple,
cottonwood, yellow poplar, Eastwood,
birch. elm, tupelo, red oak, spruce,
beech, ash, walnut aud sycamore.
The Uses of Veneer.
The best veneer is used as an overlap
for furniture and finishing for interior
of houses, but the cheaper grades are
seen almost everywhere. Among the
articles made of it are berry boxes, ba-
mana crates. peach baskets, and egg
crates Beech has a special quality
which fits it for dinner plates, the thin,
cheap kind taken on picnics, and usually
thrown away afterwards. Nearly the
entire output of beech veneer goes into
these lttlex~9lates.
A list of all the uses of veneer would
surprise almost anybody. Fine grade
Havana cigars come in fragrant Cuban
cedar boxes. They are never seen in
any other kind. But that fine cedar is
so scarce that the boxes are only COW
cred and lined with it the thinnest veneer
possible-while the principal substance
of the box is poplsr.
The poplar cigar box with its thin Gov
ering and lining of costly cedar is an in
structive example of economy in the use
of scarce and valuable wood Crates and
baskets show economy also, but with
cheaper wood. which is cut thin to make
it go farther. The furniture maker is
likewise economical for he overlays a
frame of common and coarse wood with
a beautiful material. and the finished ar
ticle. because of its freedom from checks
and warping, is often better than one
made of solid wood of high grade.
Scraps, knotty pieces. and odds and ends
are worked in the centers and covered
up. Some factories even go so far in
saving waste that they employ a process
of gluing odd bits in thin sheets, cover
ing both sides with veneer. and produc-
;ng an article of much value in construct
ing interior walls and partitions.
The scrap heap in the lumber ward is
the fastest by-product of timber opera
lions to be turned to account.