IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTAL WOOD WORK AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING THE SAME
Year: 1884

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
I FREDERICK MANKEY residing at No 192 West Third Street in the City of
Williamsport in the County of Lycoming and State of Pennsylvania in the United
States of America, gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTAL WOOD WORK AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING THE
SAME, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to new processes for treating the surfaces of wood and for
producing ornamental wood work for furniture carpentry, architectural work and
decoration by means of said treated wood surfaces.
By means of my novel process of treating wood surfaces I am enabled to produce
a novel and beautiful effect thereon bringing out the grain and also providing that
the surface treated shall be cut in regular and exact lines.
My invention may in part that is to say so far as it relates to the treatment of
the surface of the wood be carried out on the well known " Wardwell "
saw bench
by substituting for the saw, a planer cutter the shape of the cutting edges of
which will give the desired configuration. To this end I remove the same and
secure to the arbor a cutter.
The essential feature of the first part of my invention consists in presenting the
wood surface at any desired angle to the direction of the grain of the wood. I have
above referred to Wardwell's machine as well suited for my purposes but it will of
course be understood that any other machine provided with a rotary arbor for the
cutter may be employed.
I cut the wood across the grain for the purpose of obtaining a perfect cut also
for the purpose of producing a velvety effect by bringing out on a waved or
irregular surface the different forms, configurations and colors of the fibres. The
elevations and depressions which are produced by the rotary cutters may have
plane or curved surfaces and I may at proper intervals leave deep grooves between
the said elevations and depressions according to the predetermined design. It will
be understood however that in conducting my process I do not limit myself to any
specific configuration of design as an almost indefinite variety of designs may be
produced.
From what has been said it is obvious that any desired design can be produced
by changing the knives or cutters according to the design to be produced each
different shape or contour having its own cutter which is of course applied to what
is well known as a rotary cutter head.

page_text: It is further obvious that it makes no difference in the operation of cutting
whether the wood or the cutter is moved and that the design produced upon one
surface may be reproduced on the reverse surface.
Wood so treated is susceptible of many uses and is for instance specially adapted
for panneling in railroad cars for furniture ornamentation and in ornamental
architectural work generally.
I am aware that ornamental surfaces of the kind above described have been
made by hand and by means of special tools in each given case but such mode of
operation is slow and tedious and requires skillful workmen and even then not
infrequently the lines are not all true and a careful scrutiny will disclose
irregularities.
By the above described process the result even when the work has been done by
a comparatively unskilled workman is always true and perfect in all its lines.
Besides this there is a very great difference in the cost of production and the
difference between the hand and machine product is discernible at sight by any
ordinary purchaser and radically distinguishes the one from the other.
Indeed such a product as the one forming the subject of this invention has never
before been known in the market because there was no known way of making it
at a reasonable purchasable price.
Having now described my mode of treating wood surfaces, I will describe the
mode of utilizing such in the arts hereinabove referred to.
Any of the hard or soft woods may be employed the pieces of wood when
surface cross cut are sawed up in pieces of any desired size or shape.
I may saw from planks and cut thin strips all of which will on one or both edges
be uniform in contour which could not be produced by the well known jig or
muley saw. It is obvious that any one pattern of the stuff can be cut diagonally
into pieces and the latter will all accurately match and these can then be assembled
or jointed to produce an almost indefinite variety of designs or wood trimmings.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig 1 illustrates the surface produced by my new process of treatment or cross
cutting.
Fig 2 is a face view of a piece of surface cross cut wood.
Fig 3 shows the same with one strip fully cut off.
Fig 4 shows sections of surface cross cut strips assembled to form a panel and
Fig 5 shows the same jointed by miter joints.
In connection with my improved work I may produce another variety of designs
by cutting the cross cut surface work across the work or in other, words, cutting
in a direction with respect to the grain.
Thus I may make a given surface figure cross cut, and then cut at right angles
or obliquely at any angle across the first figure. Or I may take a surface cross
cut board and saw it into pieces of even or uneven widths and fasten the same
together so as to produce a piece of trimming representing staggering or tortuous
work wherein the elevations and depressions of one strip will alternate with the
corresponding elevations and depressions of the adjacent strips.
•
A very beautiful effect may be produced by using wood of different colors and
paneling thus made may be surrounded by a border of straight or cross cut
boading.
If desired the strips into which the wood is cut may be of suitable size to run
through a moulding machine in which case moulding will be produced with figures
on one or both edges of the strip.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The hereindescribed process of treating wood surfaces by rotary machine
cutters which consists in traversing such cutters upon the face of the lumber at an
angle to the direction of the grain.

page_text: 2. As a new article of manufacture a board the surface of which is exactly and
regularly cut or grooved at an angle to the grain with deep and shallow depressions
by the passage of rotary cutters thereover as described.
3. A panel or moulding formed of surface cross cut wood matched and secured
together substantially as described.
4. An ornamental strip of wood produced by first surface cross-cutting and then
sawing the stuff substantially as described.
5. The new and improved article of manufacture consisting of surface cross cut
wood sawed into strips and fastened together as set forth.
Dated this eighth day of November 1884.
W. P, THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents.