Improvements in or applicable to the Manufacture of Veneers.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Mar., 1894-Accepted, 5th May, 1894
Improvements in or applicable to the Manufacture of Veneers.
1 CARL KÖSTER of 7 Limburger Strasse, Cologne, Germany, Decorator, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
According to the present invention the veneers like actual veneers are cut from
a balk or block formed from a pulp or concrete produced by the mixture of suitable
materials.
The balk or block is formed by the superposition of several coloured layers, by
the combination of several coloured staves or by the union of variously shaped
coloured pieces of the pulp according as the veneers are to represent wood graining,
mosaic, marbling or other such effects.
The production of veneers with wood graining as near as possible to natural
graining depends on the process of building up the balk from which the veneers
are to be cut by superposing on a core concentric layers of pulp corresponding
to the rings which in a natural tree trunk are produced by the annual growth.
If the layers succeed each other in alternating or varying colours or shades
according to the particular woody grain it is intended to imitate and the balk
thereby produced is cut lengthwise into artificial veneers the cut surface presents
a pattern composed of the lines of the layers which have been cut through just as
the grained pattern of natural veneers is produced.
The following pulp or composition I find suitable for producing artificial balks
which when cut into veneers represent wood graining.
Three parts of glue boiled in water and one part of glycerine are mixed together
while hot and to the mixture is added so much kieselguhr (a well known infusorial
earth) as is necessary to form a thick creamy pulp of such a consistency that after
having been coloured by the addition of suitable colouring matter it may be applied
by a brush.
A suitable core is a slender knotty wooden stick and over this is applied a layer
consisting of say three coats of the before mentioned pulp. The layer is then
dried and on it is put another layer of pulp of a different shade or colour, again
dried and so on until the alternating concentric light and dark layers form a balk
representing a barked log of a tree.
The colouring may be aided by suitable manipulation or treatment of the pulp
to suit the various kinds of wood to be imitated. For example a very close
imitation of oak grain is produced by using after each layer has been applied a
comb or brush with stiff bristles worked lengthwise so as to form flutings or furrows
into which the succeeding layer enters and filling the furrows produces in the fluted
layers small spots of different tint.
From the balk or block thus produced slices or sheets of veneer are cut of any
desired thickness by a plane or knife and after drying they are permanently
attached to the article to be veneered by means of glue or other suitable adhesive
agent. After drying for a day or so until sufficiently hard the veneer can be
further treated as in the case of natural veneer and be oiled ground waxed polished
lacquered or varnished. The material allows the sheets of veneer to be cut as
thin as paper so that surfaces having shaped contours or profiles may be easily
veneered or they may be cut as thick as required for parquet flooring and such
plates are well adapted on account of their great flexibility and pliancy for
covering old uneven flooring since any unevenness or inequalities can be easily
planed off.

page_text: Flooring of great durability is obtainable by using thin sheets of veneer coated
with oil or varnish paint in layers superposed on each other. The oil or varnish
which is used in such case for attaching the layers penetrates the thin veneers and
makes the resulting mass hard perfectly waterproof and capable of withstanding
to a high degree any deleterious influence.
Mosaic-like veneers are produced from balks or blocks formed by separate
variously coloured staves or rods of the pulp glued together lengthwise and then
cut into sheets crosswise. Marbled veneers are produced from balks or blocks
which are best formed in a box or mould in which pieces of the material of suitably
variegated colour are so placed and united as that in section the natural markings
and shadings of marble are represented.
The covering of objects with such veneers is scarcely more costly than good
graining or marbling by means of paint while the representation is much truer to
nature far more durable and can be easily renovated and any damaged places car
be mended without showing evidence of repair.
The finished sheets of veneer are exceedingly well adapted for inlaid work
inasmuch as they can be easily cut by means of a template knife or they can be
stamped out to form ornaments figures and the like and inlaid work done with them
can scarcely be distinguished from that done with natural wood.
Further from veneers cut of suitable thickness ornaments in relief may be
pressed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what. I
claim is-
1. The process of making artificial veneers by first forming from a gelatinous
pulp or concrete a balk or block built up by the superposition of concentric or
other layers by the piling together of rods or staves or by the conglomeration of
irregularly shaped small masses the whole in varying shades and then cutting the
same into thin sheets substantially as hereinbefore set forth and described.
II. As a new article of manufacture a veneer cut in sheets from a variegated or
diversified mass of gelatinous pulp or concrete substantially as hereinbefore set
forth and described:
III. A compound veneer formed by cementing together by oil or varnish paint
two or more thin veneers of the kind hereinbefore described substantially as and
for the purpose set forth.
IV. A gelatinous pulp or concrete consisting of a mixture of an aqueous solution
of glue combined with glycerine and kieselguhr and then tinted or coloured for the
purpose of making balks or blocks in the manufacture of artificial veneers
substantially as hereinbefore set forth and described.
Dated this 22nd day of Mi i
E. T. WHITELOW, A.M. Inst. C.E.,
70, Deansgate, Manchester, Agent for the Applicant.