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THE
OCTOBER 12, 1918
GOVERNMENT USING VENEER WOODS
Demand for Airplane Parts Has Necessitated
Conscripting Large Quantities of Mahogany
and Walnut for Government Use, Causing a
Shortage in Veneers for Manufacturers
Piano manufacturers are paying more atten-
tion to the veneer situation than ever before,
due to the fact that the great call for walnut
and mahogany in veneer form and in heavier
units for airplane parts has caused a great short-
age in the available supply of wood for other
manufacturing purposes. Also, there is a great
call for walnut to make gun stocks.
There
comes from Washington, too, touching this fea-
ture, the most portentous and significant news
of the year for the veneer trade. This news is
to the effect that the Government, through the
airplane division, has practically commandeered
all the walnut and mahogany suitable for gun-
stocks and airplane parts. Veneer and furni-
ture men and other users of wood are asked to
forego the use of such of these woods as can
be utilized for and are needed in the manufac-
ture of airplanes and gunstocks.
Here is a proposition that needs serious,
thoughtful attention, followed by unanimous ac-
tion on the part of the veneer industry. There
are several phases of the matter to be consid-
ered, and much depends upon the wisdom, thor-
oughness and promptness of action on the part
of the veneer trade in the matter.
One phase of the subject is represented by the
question of what portion of the available ma-
hogany and walnut is properly adaptable to air-
plane work and gunstock-making, and -what por-
tion of it will remain for veneer work, dimen-
sion stock and other needs of the furniture and
cabinet world. Another phase of the matter is
in the possibility of developing the use of native
woods in better supply and more readily avail- .
able, in lieu of walnut and mahogany, for both
airplane work and for gunstocks, to the end
that we may have more of the mahogany and
walnut for other purposes.
It may be said that no one qualified to speak
authoritatively will question the desirability of
walnut and mahogany for airplane work, either
in the making of propeller blades or veneered
parts. Given these woods in straight grain and
even texture and there is perhaps nothing supe-
rior to them to be obtained. This is not so
much because they have greater strength for a
given weight than other woods, but because of
other mechanical properties of the wood, in-
cluding easy drying and the faculty of staying
put when they are once dried and used, and not
swelling and shrinking with changes in mois-
MUSIC
TRADE
43
REVIEW
ture and temperature conditions as much as
many other woods.
In regard to mahogany, this goes not only for
what is called true mahogany, but for practically
all the commercial woods regarded and used as
mahogany.
So long as they are straight-
grained and the proper quality, they have me-
chanical properties which make them desirable
for such work. The same is true of walnut;
indeed, there are old friends of walnut who con-
tend that it is the king of all cabinet woods and
has no superior for exacting work. It is a time,
however, to make some clear-cut distinctions
between the straight-grained mahogany and wal-
nut, desirable for mechanical properties, and the
figured woods, which are more highly valued for
cabinet work.
As a rule, the figured woods are not straight-
grained woods, and the beauty of the figure is
the result of crossing and interlocking of the
grain or fibers of the wood. This holds true of
practically all hardwoods, oak, perhaps, being
the one exception, in which straight grain and
the beauty of the quartered figure go hand in
hand. However, even in oak the most con-
spicuous splash-line figure is generally obtained
from the brasher trees, while the tougher wood
has the less conspicuously-marked figure when
quartered.
It may logically be argued, therefore, that in
both walnut and mahogany the woods most
highly valued for face work in veneering, those
with well-defined figure, are not the woods most
desirable for airplane work.
On the other
hand, the straight-grained woods in mahogany
and walnut are most desirable for airplane con-
struction, and they are the least valued, of these
woods for cabinet wood. Obviously, then, it is
time for immediate attention to such division
of these woods as will insure proper attention
to supplying the needs for airplane work, and
at the same time will leave for the face veneer
needs of the cabinet world the figured stock
which is most highly valued in the work.
HEED OUR
r
ADVICE!
And when you're satisfied
that we've the best punch-
ings on the market, cut
clean and accurately from
the best of material in cellu-
loid, cloth, felt, fibre,
leather, paper, rubber or
whatever you want, give
us credit and send your
orders to
C.E G0EPEL*C0
137 E A S T I3 T -* ST.
NEW YORK
with less splitting and cracking than while flat-
tening it out cold, because heat makes the wood
yield to bending stresses and this yielding pre-
vents cracks.
The older method was to moisten the sheets
of veneer and put them between hot cauls. This
plan was good and is still followed where the
quantity used is small and care is more impor-
tant than time. It is too slow and tedious,
however, for larger quantities.
Back probably twenty-five years ago there
was introduced what was known as a dry press,
which consisted of a series of steam-heated
plates suspended in a frame between which the
veneer sheets were clamped for flattening and
SMOOTHING WRINKLED VENEER
drying. In time these were followed by elec-
Redrying Is the Most Practical Method of trically-heated plates, and out of this idea seem-
ingly grew at least some of the modern de-
Overcoming This Difficulty
velopments in hollow-plate redriers. It is these
which are the ideal things for flattening out
The best modern plan for flattening and
wrinkled veneer, because, if properly handled,
smoothing out wrinkled veneer is to use a re-
the veneer comes out of them as flat and
drier, dry press or some of the modern drying
smooth as cardboard, and at the same time it
appliances, and put the veneer through what
receives that final drying out which makes for
might be termed a redrying before using. This better results.
will not only serve to flatten out the wrinkles,
but it will insure that drying which is essential
to good work.
The hot-plate redrier will flatten out veneer
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF, Inc.
Tuners' Trade
Manufacturer* ol
Solicited
PAPER, FELT AND CLOTH PUNCHINGS
BRIDLE STRAPS. FIBRE WASHERS AND BRIDGES
FOR PIANOS, ORGANS AND PLAYER ACTIONS
«rd e .n°d r p"ue pI ii.i
Office and Factory: 428 East 53d Street, New York
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
MANUFACTURERS
OF
There is both profit and-satisfaction in
the use of Behlen's Varnish Crack
Eradicator on your refinishing jobs.
Profit because it eliminates the trouble
and expense of scraping off the old var-
nish and shellac. Satisfaction because
the finished job is better, because you
have had a better surface to work on.
PIANO
ACTIONS
Write for sample can today and try it.
HIGHEST GRADE
ONE GRADE ONLY
OFFICE
457 WEST FORTY-FIFTH ST.
FACTORIES—WEST FORTY-FIFTH ST.
Tenth Avenue and West Forty-Sixth Street
NEW YORK
n Anilines
Behlen
A Bro.
y ^ ! \ -Stains
Shellacs %.£>* Fillers
3 7 1 PEARL ST., NEW YORK
A. C. CHENEY PIANO ACTION CO.
PLAYER-PIANOS
Mon,.ioMn,o,c «• j PNEUMATIC ACTIONS FOR PLAYER-]
Manufacturers of jeiGH-GRADE PIANOFORTE ACTIONS
CASTLETON, NEW YORK